Scotland Women make four changes to face Wales Women

Scotland Women will have four changes to the starting XV for their fourth Six Nations fixture against Wales on Friday at Scotstoun Stadium.

Mhairi Grieves returns as scrum-half for Friday’s match which will be live on BBC ALBA. This is due to an injury sustained by Sarah Law.

Mairi Forysth will join the starting XV for the first time at tight-head. Megan Kennedy will move across to loose-head prop with Lana Skeldon remaining as hooker.

Sarah Bonar moves back to the second row alongside Emma Wassell. Rachel Malcolm, who sustained an injury in the second-round fixture against Ireland, is back in the starting XV at blindside flanker. She will be joined in the back row by Jade Konkel and Rachel McLachlan.

Forwards Lisa Cockburn and Nicola Howat have moved to the bench to bring some fresh legs and power later in the game.

The rest of the squad remains unchanged from the third-round fixture against France in Lille with Rhona Lloyd and Annabel Sergeant in the wings and Helen Nelson at 10. Hannah Smith is remaining at 13 and skipper Lisa Thomson joins her again in the centre at 12.

Head Coach Shade Munro said: “This is our last home game in the 2019 Women’s Six Nations. The support that we have had at Scotstoun has been brilliant. We have had really tight matches against Wales over the last two years so I am sure this will be an exciting hard-fought encounter.”

The last time that Scotland played Wales at home, Scotland won 15-14.

Scotland and Wales will both be looking for a win on Friday night. With Wales currently ranked eighth in the world and Scotland twelfth, the hosts will be aiming to increase their ranking with a win over the Welsh as well as register a much-needed win in the Women’s Six Nations Championships.

Scotland Women are still in search of a victory in this year’s Women’s Six Nations Championships. They clocked up two losses against Italy (7-28) and Ireland (5-22) in the first two home matches.

In the third-round match against France in Lille, they played bravely in defence and had good periods of possession, even managing to get two tries past the hosts (the first try in nine years against the French). It was the 2018 Champions, however, who showed their strength with a fast kicking game, winning 41-10.

Wales lost their opening match to the French 52-3 but followed that up with an away 3-3 draw against Italy. In their most recent fixture, Wales hosted England in Cardiff. The hosts lost 12-51.

The hosts will be building from all of the positives from the last few matches to take them into this match.

International Women’s Day will be honoured at Scotstoun on Friday night. With the theme, of past, present and future, there will be representatives from Scotland Women’s past players, a focus on the present team and a look into the future with some of Scotland’s exciting young players coming through the Fosroc Academy Early Talent Identification Programme taking part in the half time activities.

To kick-off the evening, Scottish Rugby President, Dee Bradbury will present the match ball. Dee is the first female president of a Tier 1 rugby nation.

Tickets for this match are currently on sale from the Scottish Rugby website.

BREAKING | Your Scotland team to take on Wales this Friday night at Scotstoun in the @Womens6Nations! #AsOne

Head along and support the team in their last home game of the championship!

?️ https://t.co/NQ8dlJfbqQ pic.twitter.com/qVHmL7zHRL

— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) March 6, 2019