Malcolm proud but frustrated over defeat

SCOTLAND captain Rachel Malcolm was proud of her players’ efforts in the tight Guinness Women’s Six Nations loss to France, but was also disappointed with the inaccuracies that saw them come out on the wrong side of the scoreline.

France won 15-5 at the Hive Stadium after Scotland had led 5-3 at half time and had an upset in their sights.

It was a stellar effort by Scotland in Edinburgh, and it shows how far they have come since a 55-0 defeat to France last year that they were frustrated not to have recorded a positive result.

“I’m super proud of the performance in terms of the effort. I was quite literally peeling my players off the ground at full time,” Malcolm said.

“I can’t fault that and we stopped France playing the game they wanted to play.

“But I’m disappointed because we were quite inaccurate at times with our opportunities. Had we been more accurate, the scoreline could have been in our favour.

“Now we’ve earned the respect. We’re sitting at the same table as these top teams now.

“However, we can’t just say it’s nice we’re getting closer, we need to look at why we’re not on the right side of that scoreline.”

Head coach Bryan Easson added: “My initial feeling is disappointment. I hear people saying we are brave and things like that, but we are disappointed that we didn’t win the game and that is just us being brutally honest.

“We frustrated France and we managed the game and got into good positions in the first half especially, but it was our inaccuracies off set-piece that really hurt us.

“This team is definitely going places. We just have to tighten up on a few things going forward.”

Easson confirmed replacement Molly Wright was knocked out, but was “up and walking” in the changing room after the game and she will now start her HIA return-to-play protocols.