Susie’S World Cup Blog: 3

As Scotland Women prepare to take on Sweden tomorrow, in the final pool fixture of the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, forward Susie Brown posts the latest installment of life in the Scotland camp – it’s rubbish weather, picking the team up for the final fixture, and two-for-one Wednesday at the cinema with Thom Evans…  We’ve picked ourselves up after a really disappointing result against the French on Tuesday. Although our performance was better we still have a massive challenge against Sweden to come and we are aiming for progression into the 5-8th play-off spots. After two matches in quick succession against sides ranked in the top four in the world, the bodies have been feeling a little battered and bruised so a day of rest and recovery was welcomed on Wednesday. Unfortunately we lost our winger Celia Hawthorn to injury during the France game and all the squad was sad to see her go back up north to continue her recovery. Despite predictions of an Indian summer and plenty of training in extra layers in anticipation of the hot weather down here, us Scots have felt fairly at home as it has poured down for the last few days. With the weather being so wet, the cinema proved a popular choice with a few of our squad heading to Guildford to take in a movie when we had a couple of hours off. They were reminded how small the world of rugby is when they bumped into Glasgow and Scotland winger, Thom Evans, who spotted the Scotland tracksuits and passed on his best wishes to us for the rest of the tournament.  In awe of his good looks and charm, our front row found themselves a little starstruck and were unable to string two words together. Apologies to Thom but thanks from the squad for his good wishes!Thursday arrived and our focus was firmly fixed on the job in hand. A busy schedule of skills session, gym, pool, team meeting, pitch session and pool meant we were kept busy for the majority of the day. Times like this give us a taste of what the life of a professional athlete would be like. In this world cup it seems that every game is the biggest and most important and never has this been more true than on Saturday. The IRB have predicted another sell-out, so it should be quite a day of rugby – and we are planning to give the Scotland support something to really cheer about.