Scots feel the pain after England hit perfect ten
SCOTLAND women’s captain Rachel Malcolm admits her side is ‘just not there yet’ after England ran in ten tries in their Six Nations opener.
The back-row forward, whose team have now lost ten matches in a row, privately felt it was always going to be a case of damage limitation against an English side that narrowly lost the World Cup final to New Zealand in Auckland last year.
Malcolm said: ‘Being realistic, this was not going to be the day we turned those defeats around. We always go in with belief and want to win for our country but we are just not there yet in terms of England. They are still one of the best teams in the world and they showed that today. Every time they had an opportunity or we made a mistake, they capitalised on it.’
Malcolm feels her team have now played the toughest side in the Six Nations and can more than hold their own against the rest.
‘There were promising parts of our game and we had a number of new players in the squad,’ she said. ‘We built as the game went on and had opportunities when we were much more direct. Our ability to break defences in the World Cup was poor but today we did it a lot.
‘We are creating opportunities and, against other sides, we will take them. We have Wales at home next week which is a massive challenge and I can’t wait.’
For all Malcolm’s positive words about improving, her team will have to be much better against a Welsh side that secured a bonus point 31-5 win over Ireland in Cardiff.
Although this was the first time that Scotland had gone into the Six Nations with a fully professional squad and two months of full-time training behind them, there were no immediate improvements.
You could not fault their commitment but there were too many basic errors and when it came to physicality the England side — especially second-row Poppy Cleall — cut through the visiting defence far too easily.
England had used all their replacements when Cleall went off injured with 15 minutes left which meant the current Six Nations champions had to play the rest of the match with 14 players. It made no difference with Marlie Packer getting the third of her three tries when her team was one down.
Scotland got a consolation try six minutes from time when Chloe Rollie took advantage of two England missed tackles to score. Helen Nelson’s conversion was the only other points scored by the visitors to Kingston Park in Newcastle.
It was one-way traffic from the start with England winger Claudia MacDonald opening the scoring, although Scotland’s Emma Orr was stopped only inches short as she stretched for the line after the restart. It served as a wake-up call for England who went up the other end for their second score. It was their forwards that did all the hard work with hooker Amy Cokayne turning up on the wing to score.
Their third was a superb solo effort from MacDonald, who outstripped the Scotland defence to go over. By 26 minutes, they had their bonus-point try when replacement Tatyana Heard scored.
The fifth touchdown came when Cokayne emerged with the ball after a driving maul.
Within a minute of the restart, Cleall took a pass from scrum-half Lucy Packer to crash over. Abby Dow made the seventh try by sucking in the Scotland defence before releasing Sadia Kabeya who went over. The next England score came from a line-out maul. Scotland were pushed back until Packer emerged with the ball over the line for her first try.
There were emotional scenes inside Kingston Park when one of England’s greatest-ever players, the 141-times-capped Sarah Hunter, went off in 58 minutes in her final international game. The local Newcastle girl was given a standing ovation as she left the field.
Packer got England’s ninth try after a forward drive from a line-out took them to 53 points before going over again in the corner for her third try.
Scotland managed a consolation score from Rollie with six minutes left and she nearly got another after a fantastic solo run.