THE FULL NELSON
STAND-OFF WANTS SCOTS TO GO FOR THE JUGULAR AFTER ICE-COOL KICK PUT FRENCH IN A CHOKE-HOLD
HISTORY was against her. As were the conditions as the wind swirled and the rain came down in the west end of Glasgow.
And yet, Helen Nelson held her nerve and her kick held its line. Her conversion drew Scotland level with France and secured a famous draw at Scotstoun on Sunday.
Yes, it was a 13-13 scoreline and victory remained elusive. But given the Scots’ dreadful record against the French, who could blame them for celebrating at the final whistle?
A well-worked try out wide from Rachel Shankland in the 73rd minute of the Women’s Six Nations match with France had pulled the Scots back to within two points before stand- off Nelson did her stuff.
The Scots had not played a Test match for 37 weeks, the result in their previous match a 53- 0 drubbing by England. They had lost their last eight Six Nations matches dating back to March 2018. A draw, then, was a very positive outcome for interim head coach Bryan Easson.
‘I had managed to kick two penalties earlier in the game, but then missed another just a few minutes before the conversion attempt,’ said Nelson, whose kick put paid to France’s title hopes.
‘I think I overthought that one or didn’t strike right through the ball, so I wasn’t thinking about the magnitude of the conversion when I was taking it. I was just going through my usual processes and not overthinking things.
‘All I was thinking about was kicking the ball cleanly and then, once I saw it had gone over, I was straight back to our half and focusing on the next job, which was our team receiving the kick-off and exiting properly.
‘ The conversion was a big moment in the game, but, as a kicker, you try not to get too high or too low and just focus on the kick in hand at the time.’ When France went ahead 13-3 in the 45th minute, some may have feared that the floodgates would open.
However, Easson and his coaching team of Ross Miller, Tyrone Holmes and Gary Strain have been helping this Scotland squad develop a tougher edge in recent weeks.
And, with France down to 14 players in the last quarter having used all their replacements, the hosts went for the jugular.
‘Even when we were ten points down, we did not panic and were still pretty confident. We wanted to put pressure on the French,’ said Nelson.
‘When they went down to 14, it meant there was more space in the wide channels and we wanted to pin them down in their half and play with tempo.
‘As a result, they started to cough the ball up and we took encouragement from that.
‘Our forwards played so well in the game and put in an absolute shift by carrying the ball hard in attack and also defending very well.
‘We really fronted up and when we had the ball in hand in the last 20 minutes, we challenged France out wide and stretched them as was seen by the try that Rachel Shankland scored on the wing.
‘We have worked really hard on our defence.
‘To play against — and try and challenge — the top teams, you have to defend well and we have to take confidence and belief from this game.
‘Next up, we head to Wales on Sunday in the Six Nations and we can’t take our foot off the gas.’