Easson makes hat-trick of changes for finale
BRYAN Easson has made three changes to Scotland’s starting fifteen for Saturday’s Six Nations wooden-spoon decider against Wales at Scotstoun and has challenged his players to be switched on for the full 80 minutes after leaving themselves with mountains to climb against England and Italy in their last two outings.
Christine Belisle is named at loose-head prop, having previously played at tighthead for Scotland since making the switch from the backrow to the front-row last summer, with Leah Bartlett dropping to the bench. Meanwhile, Jenny Maxwell gets her first start of the championship at scrum-half.
Hannah Smith, meanwhile, returns at outside-centre after missing last weekend’s defeat to Italy because she was at a training camp with the Team GB 7s squad.
“We just felt the way we want to play the game, we’re getting a little bit more from Christine around the pitch,” explained Easson. “Leah’s a really good scrummager but it’s been evident over the last couple of weeks that she’s not played a lot, so we’ve gone with the addition of a little bit of size in the front row, and defensively Christine brings that little bit more energy, especially at the ruck area where we know the Welsh are very physical.”
“It’s great to back,” he added.
“She has been out for a long time with her ACL and when she came on against Italy she brought a little more tempo to the game which is exactly see
Jenny how we want to play against the Welsh anyway, so that was a fairly simple one for us.
“With Hannah coming back, Lisa Thomson slots back to her favourite position of 12, and Helen Nelson returns to 10, so that was also an easy call to go back to players in positions they are happier in.”
Scotland (v Wales at Scotstoun Stadium, Saturday, 5pm): 5pm): C Rollie; E Musgrove, H Smith, L Thomson, M Gaffney; H Nelson (c), J Maxwell; C Belisle, L Skeldon, M Kennedy, E Wassell, L McMillan, E Gallagher, R McLachlan, S Cattigan. Replacements J Rettie, L Bartlett, L Cockburn, N Howat, M McDonald, S Law, E Wills, R Shankland.