Whitewash, but some reasons to be cheerful

This was always going to be a tough day at the office for Scotland Women – and the bleak conditions didn’t help their cause – but head coach Philip Doyle said he took some encouragement from his team’s performance against one of the top sides in world rugby.

That was reflected in this being a 27-point improvement on last year’s thrashing against the same opposition at Twickenham.

“It’s a hard one to take in some ways, such as our lineout not being good enough meaning that they put us under terrible pressure there,” said Doyle.

“But the scrum was good for the first 60 minutes, which is encouraging going forward, and we closed the gap from an 80-0 drubbing last year with no character to a 53-0 loss with lots of character. I’m going to take that going into Italy [in just under two weeks’ time].”

England scored three firsthalf tries through Sarah Bern, Jess Breach and Abby Dow, with Emily Scarratt adding two conversions and a penalty to make it 0-22 at the change of ends, with Emily Scott twice, Dow again, captain Sarah Hunter and Claudia Macdonald all getting in on the act after the break.

It is to Scotland’s credit that they kept battling to the end and had a 10-minute period camped in English territory towards the end of the match – although they lacked the firepower to turn pressure into points.

“You must remember they [England] have been fully professional for a year now, and you can see it a mile away,” said Doyle. “There is a difference in class, and that’s okay because England is not where we want to be just yet –maybeinacoupleofyears– butwherewewanttogonow is get to the 2021 World Cup [thequalifiersareinseptember] and build that way.”