Smith lands a magnificent seven tries as Scots surge up the standings
Scotland Women Sevens head coach Scott Forrest believes there is a lot more to come from the current group of players after their fine showing in Russia at the weekend which enabled them to finish third at the tournament and fourthintheoverallgrandprix standings.
After the first Rugby Europe Grand Prix event on the outskirts of Paris earlier this summer, the newly-promoted Scots sat eighth from 12 teams.
However, any fear of falling into a relegation spot in Kazan was blown away with two days of superb rugby by captain Helen Nelson and her team.
Afterthesevensseasoncame to a close Forrest said: “The great thing about this group of players is that they are hungry to always get better.
“They learned a lot of lessons from the French event and we worked on ironing a few things out between then and Russia.
“There are a lot of young players involved and they can take confidence from this year and go on and do good things.”
On day one in Russia Scotland got off to a flying start witha29-14victoryoverwales. A defeat by Russia – the eventual Grand Prix overall winners – came next before they regrouped to defeat Portugal 21-10. Lisa Thomson, Liz Musgrove, Jenny Maxwell, Helen Nelson (2) and Hannah Smith, pictured, (3) all scored tries on day one.
On day two, tries by Eilidh Sinclair, Smith and Louise Mcmillan helped Scotland win their quarter-final 17-15 against Ireland.
Sinclair, Smith, Lauren Harris and Abi Evans scored tries in the semi against France, but the team just lost out 24-22.
There were two more tries by Smith, to end her prolific two days, and one by skipper Nelson as Scotland found some more energy to defeat Poland 19-12 and take third place.
0 Cornell Du Preez: Resting.
signed du Preez for Edinburgh in 2013, said after the game: “Nobody seemed to pick it [the tackle] up but it doesn’t look good to me. The larynx sits above the shoulder line.”
Solomons added: “I don’t know what happened, I haven’t seen it, but something must have hit him. He’s not going to fracture his larynx [otherwise].”
Warriors said in a statement: “Cornell is stable and resting in hospital. Further surgery will be required to his larynx.
“The club is providing full support for Cornell and his family, and wishes him a speedy recovery.”
Du Preez, who can count Edinburgh Academicals, Heriot’s, Southern Kings and Eastern Province Kings among his former teams, has been capped six times by Scotland.
The 27-year-old made his international debut as a replacement against England in the 2017 Six Nationst, earning his first start during the Autumn Test later that year at No 8 in a 22-17 loss to New Zealand at BT Murrayfield.