Women’s Rugby – Scotland v Wales, Women’s Six Nations

Battling Scots lose out to Wales at Broadwood

Scotland’s women put on one of their best displays at Broadwood Stadium despite being on the end of a 39-3 defeat to Wales. Welsh tails were up after defeating 6 Nations favourites, England, the previous week so all they had to do was turn up…..

However, the Scottish women played one of their best halves of rugby for a long time in the first half, holding the Welsh to a 6-0 half time lead through two penalties from the boot of wing, Laurie Harris. Although they came within a metre or so of the line on a couple of occasions, the Welsh attack was repulsed with a commitment to the tackle that belied their recent form.

Wales had the majority of the territorial battle, but possession was more evenly shared and Scotland looked dangerous on a couple of occasions, with just the final ball letting them down. Near the end of the first half, the Scots pushed deep into the visitors 22, and a series of penalties had the Welsh side scrambling. But going for the line rather than for the points were their undoing as the Welsh turned ball over at least twice and kicked to clear.

The second half started well for Scotland with a penalty from centre, Nuala Deans, to bring the team to within a single score at 6-3, but that was the last time they threatened the score board as Wales went on to score 33 unanswered points in the remainder of the game. Their five tries came from a variety of sources with the pack and the backline combining to cross the line. Tries from Carys Phillips and Sioned Harries quicly took the score out to 19-3, with the flow of play towards the Scots’ end only interrupted by a serious injury to Scotland’s Hannah Smith.

Scotland were still defending well, but defending on your line can only go one way and a series of penalties put the Scots on a permanent back foot. The made several decent attempts to break out of their half, but were relatively easily stopped and the ball quickly returned. Full back, Dyddgu Hywel scored Wales’ third try with a fine run down the right touchline. Then Scotland’s Deborah McCormack was yellow carded for a high tackle and that gave the visitors an easier time and the resultant two tries from Elinor Snowsil and Amy Lawrence – the latter following an extended siege on Scotland’s right corner – with assistance from the boot of Harris, took the final score out to that 39-3. It wasn’t all bad news, though, as Jade Konkel took a well deserved, Player-of-the-Match award for the home side, helped, no doubt, by a couple of penetrating runs late on in the match which saw the visitor’s defence having to scramble back.

A hammering? With the second half performance from Wales, without a doubt, but there were glimmers of hope – the scrum looked better than it had for a long time – from the Scotland team. Neither team were short on commitment – you only had to see the bodies littering the field at times to know that – but Wales had that edge that took them well clear in the second half.

Scotland still have a way to go to catch up with the other five nations in the Championship so let’s hope that the new(-ish) head of women’s rugby, Sheila Begbie, can do as good a job for the women at Scottish Rugby as she did for women’s football at the SFA and EUFA, but possibly not before their next match at Broadwood – needs a few new bulbs in the lighting – against Italy in a fortnight.

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.