Scotland Women 7s finish 6th in Marcoussis

1 Jul 2019

Scotland Women 7s earned a sixth place finish in the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series Leg 1 in Marcoussis yesterday. The result means that they are the highest ranked non-World Series core nation heading into the second leg in a few weeks’ time.

Scotland finished Day One with a win over Italy and losses to World Rugby core nations Spain and Ireland. They then headed into Day Two as one of the top third-placed teams to gain entrance into the Cup quarter-finals.

A tough match against the strong Russian side put Scotland into the fifth place semi-finals. They put in a strong performance against Belgium, winning 31-7, before playing England in the fifth place final. England put in a confident display following on from the draw at Biarritz in the World Series a couple of weeks ago. Hannah Smith dotted down for Scotland’s only try to leave the result 7-35.

Captain Helen Nelson said, “I am really proud of the squad over the weekend. We had a tough pool on Day One but put in good performances against Spain and Ireland to get a top eight spot.

“We had a few player changes in the squad who really stepped up, including new cap Sarah Denholm. We learnt a lot and are developing in every tournament. I am excited to see what we can do at the next tournament in Ukraine.”

Head coach Scott Forrest said “Overall for the weekend we are pleased with where we finished with sixth place. That essentially was our target. Our performances were up and down over the weekend, but we played to where our ranking was. The World Series core teams came out strong this weekend as their results will count towards the rankings for the Olympic qualifiers.

“Overall, we are pleased with where we finished up, but we know that we can make improvements. Our results have put us in a really good place looking into the Ukraine Grand Prix leg in a few weeks’ time.”

Scotland Women 7s will play in the second leg of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series in Kharkiv, Ukraine on 20-21 July.