SCOTS SKIPPER MALCOLM OUT OF SIX NATIONS

SCOTLAND captain Rachel Malcolm has been ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations due to a knee injury.

The back-row forward picked up the ligament strain straight from kick-off in the 52-10 defeat to England in Doncaster earlier this month but soldiered on until half-time before the pain got too much. Scotland assistant head coach Ross Miller said: ‘Rachel heroically fought on until half-time but her timeline in terms of getting her injury right is not going to make her available for the final two fixtures, starting with the one against Italy on Saturday and then whoever we play on the final weekend. ‘It (the injury) is not as serious as we first thought, so that is a real positive. But she’ll be a real miss for our squad in the rest of the Six Nations.’

Vice-captain Helen Nelson will step up to lead the side against Italy at Scotstoun at 5pm on Saturday. The fixture is still set to go ahead despite taking place on the same day as Prince Philip’s funeral, which starts at 3pm.

Nicola Howat of Sale Sharks, who can play in the second row and back row, has been drafted in as replacement for Malcolm (below).

‘Losing our captain at any point is not great for the team,’ said Miller. ‘Not having her presence around camp is a big miss as she is an experienced player. She is vocal and a big member of the team. But we have a robust group of players and they will work hard to continue to improve in Rachel’s absence.’

The group of part-time and amateurs players lost heavily to a fully professional England team in their opening match, but the Scottish coaches expect a much more competitive match against the Italians. ‘We were disappointed with the England result, but we definitely took positives out of the performance and that is what we will take into the Italian game,’ said Miller. ‘There were hugely positive pictures in terms of our attack and our defence and our set-piece has definitely improved. ‘We got parity there and were able to put England under real pressure. The scrum was a significant step forward for us and to win over 70 per cent of our line-outs was excellent. That is down to the players working hard.’