Emma Orr lauds introduction of menstrual cycle tracking technology

Emma Orr is the leading light when it comes to Scotland’s exciting new generation of female players and ever since she earned her first cap in 2022 the centre has been thorough and diligent in her approach - and left no stone unturned - as she aims to stay one step ahead.

As a result, it is no surprise that the 21-year-old, who joined Bristol Bears over the summer, is keen to try out a performance platform which aims to help female athletes to understand the impact their menstrual cycle has on performance, wellbeing and recovery.

The Vodafone PLAYER.Connect performance platform is already being used by Wales women, the Armed Forces women’s Rugby Team, Celtic Challenge teams Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning and the women’s rugby teams at Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Durham universities.

And now, as they prepare for September Tests with Wales and Fiji and then WXV 2 in South Africa where they will look to defend their crown, Scotland’s top players have access to the performance platform after Vodafone announced a major multi-year partnership with Scottish Rugby, to become a principal partner and back of shirt sponsor of the women’s and men’s teams.

“It is something that is very personal to each player obviously, but essentially it is an app that allows you to track your menstrual cycle and how your menstrual cycle impacts strain on your body and how it affects times when you are more susceptible to injury and things like that which is such a big thing,” Orr said.

“Nobody wants to get injured obviously so to have a tool like that which Vodafone have brought on board for us to use for our wellbeing is a big step forward.

“To be able to track things like that [the menstrual cycle and its impact] which we haven’t always been able to do is really great - it is an important part of our health and we just want to be able to perform the best we can.”

In recent times a number of studies have been carried out to look at the link between periods and injury, particularly the prevalence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female athletes.

These studies are ongoing and Orr hopes this performance platform - which can help players and their coaches monitor readiness to train, sleep, mood and energy, anthropometrics, health and sickness, medication, training load, and fatigue along with allowing injury screening and muscle soreness screening - can play its part in keeping her fully fit ahead of a big spell leading right through to Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

“ACL injuries have probably been at an almost all-time high at the minute in rugby and football, especially for women,” Orr, who was named in Scotland’s 30-strong squad for the upcoming matches on Tuesday, stated.

“The relationship between your menstrual cycle and those injuries has been mentioned a lot in scientific reports and things like that so it is massive to have this app and if it it can help us to prevent injuries, even little injuries, we’ll grab that with both hands and use it to help ourselves as athletes.

“It's brilliant to have a resource like this now.”

Recently Scotland women’s head of physical performance Josie Symonds spoke to RugbyPass and said that a lot of time was spent in their recent preseason block looking at “recovery and behaviours around that”.

And with five Tests coming up between September 6 and October 12, recovery is something Orr is really dialled into.

The 19-capper explained: “When I was younger recovery wasn’t something I was really thinking about because I liked to do as many sports and physical activities as possible, but coming into a high-performance environment with Scotland I have had to really learn just how important recovery is and, when you have weeks of games back-to-back, it is huge that when you have time for recovery you use it and do it properly.

“Josie [Symonds] has been incredible at driving us to really use all the facilities we have available to us at Murrayfield and at Oriam [Scotland’s training base on the outskirts of Edinburgh] to aid recovery.

“Recovery is just as important as our physical preparation, our rugby sessions and our gym work. Recovery is key and right up there in terms of performance, hopefully recovering properly can help prevent injuries and help us to keep performing at the top level.”

As part of the new sponsorship deal, Vodafone will be a principal partner of Scottish Rugby’s women’s pathway and, in Orr, the players coming through certainly have someone to look up to.

Many of her international teammates have used the phrase world-class when describing the player from Biggar over the last couple of years while head coach Easson rates her highly and she now plays a big role in team proceedings.

Having grown up on a family farm Orr, who graduated on Monday in Glasgow with a BSc in Agriculture from Scotland’s Rural College [SRUC], has had a strong work ethic instilled in her from an early age while, as a 13, she has the kind of rugby instinct that is hard to teach.

No surprise then that Dave Ward and the Bears pounced to sign her up ahead of the upcoming PWR campaign - and Orr believes the move south can make her an even better player going into World Cup year.

“Earlier this year I just started to feel like I was struggling to balance my studies and my rugby and the way rugby is going I need to be 100 per cent ‘in’,” Orr, who is training with Bristol this week before linking up again with Scotland in a few days, stated.

“I wanted to put my all into my rugby and moving down south and giving it the best shot I can will help and thankfully now I can put 100 per cent into my rugby.

“A lot of the Scotland players knew that I was thinking about heading down south and I spoke to a lot of them about their own club experiences because they are all dotted about the place.

“Bristol seemed, from what I heard, an unbelievable environment and the Scottish girls who have gone there have absolutely thrived. I just spoke to everyone and got a feel for things, I went down to Bristol and saw the facilities and got to know the staff there and I absolutely loved it.

“I think the move to Bristol will help my game develop even further, not only playing week in and week out at a really high level, but training and competing with girls who are world-class will hopefully really develop my individual skills.

“It is just such exciting times with Bristol and with Scotland.

“With the national team we are heading in a promising direction and I am looking forward to the challenges of the next year or so which will take us up to Rugby World Cup 2025.”

Vodafone is a new Principal Partner and back of shirt sponsor of Scottish Rugby's Men's and Women's team.

Vodafone is also a Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby’s Women’s Pathway, supporting the growth of the women’s game in Scotland.