Scotland start their tournament in Wales where they have never won. Can they keep their WXV2 form rolling into this tournament? Where it all go wrong/right?
Wales: Jenny Hesketh, Jasmine Joyce, Hannah Jones, Kerin Lake, Nel Metcalfe, Lleucu George, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Kelsey Jones, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Natalia John, Abbie Fleming, Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Bethan Lewis.
Replacements: Carys Phillips, Abbey Constable, Donna Rose, Georgia Evans, Kate Williams, Sian Jones, Niamh Terry, Carys Cox.
Scotland: Meryl Smith, Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Coreen Grant, Helen Nelson, Caity Mattinson; Leah Bartlett, Lana Skeldon, Christine Belisle, Emma Wassell, Sara Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (capt), Alex Stewart, Evie Gallagher.
Replacements: Elis Martin, Molly Wright, Elliann Clarke, Louise McMillan, Eva Donaldson, Mairi McDonald, Shona Campbell, Chloe Rollie.
Give us your thoughts on the game.
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1 response
I mean they’re a Scotland team, of COURSE they’re going to put us through agony for it, but that was such an important win and such an impressive performance, away to a team that is further along than us on the road to professionalism. A couple of high quality tries (Emma Orr is already looking like the complete outside centre, and she’s only 20), control of territory and possession for much of the game, and we won the kicking battle, from hand and from the tee.
The real stand out, though, was the defence. According to the Six Nations site, they had a 97% tackle completion rate. That is phenomenal. Nobody from last year’s Womens 6 Nations, or indeed this year’s Men’s Six Nations, came close to that percentage in a game. It speaks to this team’s commitment, organisation and togetherness.
Some enormous work-ons for France next week – penalty count was too high, and for the dominance we had for much of the game, we should have been out of sight and the last ten minutes should have been much less stressful (albeit Callendar did less of a double movement and more of a full on commando crawl).
There’s a weird quirk in the Scotland Womens fixtures that we get the two exceptional teams at home and have all our winnable games away, then vice versa. We’re at a massive disadvantage this year, so to kick off with a win, with everything on the line for world cup and WXV qualification, is absolutely massive.