Preview: Wales Women V Scotland Women

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MARCH 05: Meryl Smith during a Scotland Rugby Women visual access at the Hive Stadium, on March 05, 2024, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

What they said

Head Coach Bryan Easson said:

“We’ve kept our feet firmly on the ground coming into this Six Nations because we know we are coming up against some of the best teams in the world. Coming into it with some good performances and wins does set that belief and sets us in good stead for what’s ahead.

“We’ve done our homework, we understand Wales quite well. We’ve had some really good fixtures against them in the past but we’ve concentrated really hard on ourselves. We’ve highlighted WXV, we’ve highlighted previous Six Nations, especially the last two Six Nations games coming into WXV we were pretty happy with our performance. The goal for us now is to keep improving those performances”.

The teams

The stats

• Scotland won more turnovers than any other team in the 2023 Guinness Women’s Six Nations (40) and were one of two teams to concede fewer than 70 turnovers (59).
• Scotland conceded the fewest penalties of any team in the 2023 Guinness Women’s Six Nations (41) and were the only side not to be shown a card of any colour.
• Evie Gallagher made 81 tackles in the 2023 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, the second most in the championship; Lana Skeldon was fourth with 73.
• Among the 66 players to face 20+ tackles in the 2023 Guinness Women’s Six  Nations, Scotland duo Francesca McGhie (54%) and Chloe Rollie (53%) were two of just three to evade over half of the tackles they faced (also Alyssa D’Inca) –Rollie was also the only player to beat over 30 defenders last year (41).