Scotland Women make progress in Wales

A Scotland Women XV showed progress in a non-capped match against Wales Women in Cardiff today. The hosts scored three tries to claim a 15-0 victory in front of vocal home support in damp conditions at Cardiff Arms Park.The contest provided Scotland Women a benchmark ahead of their Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifiers next month against Spain and also gave new players and combinations experience.Scotland Women Head Coach Shade Munro said: “It was a really good test for us. We played against a good Welsh team. Right from the word go they seemed to have a lot of possession.”Our defence stood up very well, it was only in the latter parts of the game we started to tail off a bit. We started to get tired and fell off a couple of tackles and ultimately that’s where their tries came from.”Our set piece held up well, the line outs that we did have functioned reasonably well so then it’s looking at possession and what are we doing with the ball.Overall it was very encouraging – huge effort from the players. It was also beneficial to see different combinations and new players adding depth to the squad ahead of our two Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifiers against Spain.” – Shade MunroRun of playWales put Scotland’s defence to the test from the outset as they enjoyed the majority of possession and territory, but tackle after tackle Scotland remained composed.It was at the 20-minute mark that Scotland started to settle. Centre Lisa Thomson made a marvellous break to cross the whitewash, but was called back by the referee.The backs continued to have a go with full-back Chloe Rollie carving up the pitch followed by wing Rhona Lloyd stepping past several defenders to create another opportunity.Just as it looked like the score would remain equal going into the break, Welsh captain Carys Phillips managed to find a gap in an otherwise composed Scotland defence to score at 38 minutes.  The scored remained 5-0 as stand-off Eilinor Snowsil’s attempt bounced off the sticks.Half-time: Wales Women 5 – 0 Scotland Women XVScotland came out firing after the break to stay in the game and did well to prevent Wales adding to their points tally after losing prop Siobham McMillan to a yellow card.Wales extended the lead through two unconverted Welsh tries from Charlie Murray and Adi Taviner and increased their resolve to prevent Scotland getting on the board.  In the final 15 minutes, however, Scotland created two opportunities that came tantalising close to tries, but the slippery conditions on the synthetic surface thwarted these attempts and the score remained 15-0 at the full-time whistle.Scotland Women are set to play Spain Women next month at home and away with the winner securing a place at next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland.More information about these WRWC qualifiers will be available on scottishrugby.org next week.Scotland Women XV: 1. Heather Lockhart 2. Lana Skeldon 3. Tracey Balmer 4. Emma Wassell 5. Sarah Bonar 6. Jemma Forsyth 7. Louise McMillan 8. Karen Dunbar 9. Jenny Maxwell 10. Helen Nelson 11. Rhona Lloyd 12. Lisa Martin (capt) 13. Lisa Thomson 14. Megan Gaffney 15. Chloe Rollie Replacements: Lucy Park, Katie Dougan, Siobhan McMillan, Fiona Sim, Rachel Malcolm, Lyndsey O’Donnell, Caroline Collie, Eilidh SinclairWales Women: 1. Caryl Thomas?2. Carys Phillips (capt)?3. Meg York?4. Siwan Lillicrap?5. Rebecca Rowe?6. Alisha Butchers?7. Sioned Harries?8. Shona Powell-Hughes?9. Sian Moore?10. Elinor Snowsill?11. Ffion Bowen?12. Rebecca De Filippo?13. Kerin Lake?14. Charlie Murray?15. Dyddgu Hywel Replacements??16. Morfudd Ifans?17. Cerys Hale?18. Amy Evans?19. Mel Clay?20. Sian Williams?21. Adi Taviner?22. Jodie Evans?23. Keira Bevan