The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Depleted Scots rely on increased depth
Scotland’s new depth built over months in training camp will overcome the loss of three key players in their Women’s Six Nations game against Italy at Scotstoun tomorrow.
They are already indefinitely without Jade Konkel as she focuses on fire brigade training, while skipper Rachel Malcolm is out for this game after injury against England.
Also, centre Hannah Smith, the try-scorer against the English, is with the GB 7s squad preparing for the Olympic Games.
But head coach Bryan Easson believes the squad has used preparation time to build depth and is confident this will show in a game environment.
“You can train all you like but the game’s the best teacher,” he said.
“We played France in October and then had to wait that length of time before the England game. We were disappointed with our first-half performance there.
“For ourselves and Italy, we’ve played that game so we’ll see less system errors, more cohesion.
“It’s a blow not having Rachel, of course, and we knew we’d have a different midfield post-England.
“But we’re looking at any change being a positive.
“We’re now building a squad for not just 15 or 23 or 25, but gaining players experience with World Cup qualifiers coming up.
“What’s important is we’ve now got players pushing hard and I think if we’re honest, has that happened in the past? Probably not.
“Now players have to work harder to keep their positions.”
Scotland haven’t beaten Italy since 2017, but having seen them routed by England at home last week, Easson thinks they have the same basic principles.
“They look as if they’re playing the same way they’ve done recently. We’re well aware of what’s going to come,” he said.
“They always come out of
the traps quickly, you that against Ireland against England.
“For us it’s about containment, not overplaying and not giving anything away; looking after our discipline in the middle third. We’ve talked a lot about that first 20 or 30.”
Scotland need to come out of the traps themselves far better than they did against England, but Easson thinks the trump card is the set piece.
“Italy have struggled in the lineout, and we’ve pinpointed that,” he said.
“We thought our scrum was in a good place against England.
“I think in the past our set piece has been at about 50 or 60% success rate, but the last few games we are looking at the high 80s or 90s.”
Scotland have made four changes for the game, with Sarah Law returning from an Achilles injury to start at 10.
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Law, occasionally a scrum-half, will team up in midfield with Helen Nelson – captain in Malcolm’s absence – and Lisa Thomson, who both slide over one spot to inside and outside centre.
“Helen Nelson plays week-in-week-out at centre for Loughborough so it’s nothing new for her,” added Easson.
“It allows us to do different things in our game. We have distributors at 10 and 12 now so
we can put some width our game if required.
“It also means we have kickers at 10, 12 and 13.
“We can be careful not to overplay in the middle of the field as happened a little bit against England,” he added.
In the pack, Megan Kennedy is returning at tight-head with Christine Beleisle dropping to the bench.
Evie Gallacher will start for the first time in Malcolm’s absence. on