Scotland Women’s Rugby – 2017 Six Nations

Scottish Women’s Rugby have had their best Six Nations Championship since 2010.

That was the year that Scotland’s women beat France (10-8) and drew with Italy (6-6) to finish fourth in the Women’s Six Nations Championship.

Since then it’s been string of sixth place finishes with the teams failing to find a win, or even a draw, against any of the other five Nations. This year was different. Although the 2017 RBS Six Nations followed on from two defeats to Spain in World Cup qualification matches, there has been a quiet confidence in the camp. The appointment of Shade Munro as head coach a couple of seasons ago – as well as snaring Sheila Begbie from the SFA to head up women’s rugby – has, no doubt been a factor in this.

A good performance and result (15-22) against Ireland – an overtime try for Ireland snatching a draw away from the Scots – boded well for the following matches and despite big losses to France (0-55) and England (0-64), that confidence didn’t appear to waiver.

Against Wales, the team were two tries down despite dominating possession and territory early on, but went into the break at 7-14, before scoring a second, unconverted try halfway through the second half. The match was won, courtesy of a 77^th minute Sarah Law penalty to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

They followed this win up with a second over Italy in the final weekend of the Championship, once again coming back from two tries down to win 14-12 after another fightback, all the scoring being in the first half for this match.

So, overall, things are looking on the up, with the women having increasing support from Scottish Rugby to give them every chance to improve year-on-year. Will they ever be on a par with the likes of England? Probably not, but for Scotland – as indeed, for most of the World’s teams – keeping England to double-figure scores can be seen as some, mild, form of success.

John Preece

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