Scotland Women v England Preview

What they said:

Scotland vice-captain Helen Nelson said: “It was by no means a perfect performance [against Wales] but considering how many new faces there are both in the squad and from a coaching point of view, it’s a really good start for us.

“It gave us a good platform to build on from both in a defence and attacking point of view.

“We’re creating opportunities and getting the ball into those wider channels. Our kicking game was really good towards the end of the game. In defence, we held Wales out when we were under a lot of pressure, and that showed grit to get the win.

“We take the positives away from Wales and there are some fix-ups that we can look at, and hit the ground running on Saturday.

“England will want to move the ball around and love to play with pace and get the ball in those wide channels. For us, it’ll be about trying to stop that momentum and getting the tempo on our terms, and keep the tempo when we are attacking and challenge them out wide, as well.

“Playing at Scottish Gas Murrayfield will be so exciting. I’ve had the opportunity to play there a few times, but never with that many people in the stands.

“We’ve built such a good following at the Hive over the years, so it’s exciting not just for us but for the fans as well to take it to that next level. Hopefully, we can go out and put in a good performance for them.

“At Broadwood [where Helen made her Six Nations debut] there were probably just friends and family, and 50 to 100 people in the stands, to now having so many people wanting to come and getting invested in the sport.

“Seeing it around the city and all the branding, you can really feel the city getting behind us which is really cool. Hopefully, we just go from strength to strength.”

The Teams:

Evie Wills is the only change to the XV for this weekend’s match against England, as she replaces Emma Orr in the number 13 shirt.

The rest of the starting pack remains unshuffled, with Francesca McGhie and Rachel McLachlan taking their place amongst the replacements having missed out on the 23-player squad for the opener in Wales.

The Stats:

• England (57%) and Scotland (55%) had the highest territory rates of any sides in Round One of this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations.
• Scotland had the highest ruck success rate of any side in last weekend’s fixtures (97.8%), while England’s average attacking ruck speed of 2.56 seconds was the quickest of any team last time out.
• Scotland (5/5) and England (8/8) were two of three sides not to lose a single scrum on their own put-in during the opening round of this year’s Championship (also France, 3/3).