MANCHESTER, England :Scotland overcame pre-tournament woes and past disappointment in the Women’s Rugby World Cup to hand themselves a strong chance of qualifying for the knockout phase after winning their opening pool game against Wales on Saturday.
The Scots had crashed out of the last World Cup in New Zealand four years ago after losing their three pool games, including an 18-15 defeat by Wales in Whangarei, but on Saturday extracted revenge in impressive fashion.
Their 38-8 win at the Salford Community Stadium saw 22-year-old winger Francesca McGhie notch a hat-trick in Scotland’s biggest win over Wales and their first victory at a World Cup since 2010, having failed to qualify for the tournaments in 2014 and 2017.
“When you put Fran McGhie in space, what a finisher,” Scotland coach Bryan Easson told reporters after the victory.
“I’d said to her this morning she’ll get a couple of scores, but I said to her at half-time, ‘come on, that’s not enough’. One-on-one, I don’t think there’s anybody better in the world. She’s a world-class finisher without a doubt.”
Canada are the top-ranked team in Pool B, and easily beat Fiji on Saturday, so the clash between Scotland and Wales was seen as decisive for both if they are to also finish in the top two and advance to the quarter-finals.
“We had spoken all week about being ruthless and I think that is something we saw,” Easson added.
“When we got into their goal zones, we were pretty ruthless and put them under pressure, and I thought our rucking off the ball was excellent. Defensively, Wales were never in the game; we suffocated them a bit.
“Our work rate, our want to fight, our want to not let them score spoke volumes of everybody.”
McGhie, who had trained as a ballerina and only took up rugby at the age of 15, opened the scoring after 35 seconds as Scotland quickly put aside their disrupted build-up with contract disputes only resolved in the weeks leading up to the tournament.
“Adversity does help you at times; it does pull you together. We are a tight circle, we know who we want to play for and who we want to perform for.
“I think today spoke volumes about how tight they are, how much they want to fight for each other,” added Easson.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by David Gregorio)
