It may be on day two of the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup but Scotland\u2019s meeting with Wales on Saturday afternoon has the hallmarks of one of the tournament\u2019s most important group games.<\/p>\n
Canada are likely to win Group B, meaning the Celtic clash in Salford may effectively represent a knockout game less than 24 hours after the tournament kicks off. The stakes are high, as is motivation for Scotland on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n
They will be fuelled by erasing the painful memory of the last World Cup in 2022, when a first appearance in 12 years saw them narrowly lose to both Australia and Wales and exit at the group stage. Hopes are high they can go at least one step further this time. That defeat to the Welsh came via a dramatic 86th-minute penalty from Keira Bevan. Revenge is on the mind for Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely still a sour taste in my mouth,\u201d said Rachel Malcolm, Scotland\u2019s captain, this week. \u201cI think we probably underestimated how much relief we felt to just be there. I think this World Cup is different. We\u2019ve gone back-to-back for the first time in a very long time in terms of qualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the buildup has been turbulent to say the least. Bryan Easson, the head coach, confirmed last month he would leave after the tournament, and there has been a public dispute between Scottish Rugby and their players over contracts. Scotland\u2019s wing Rhona Lloyd said recently that \u201cmore than half\u201d of Scotland\u2019s 32-strong squad do not have a deal after the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Welsh women\u2019s rugby has endured similar problems in its early steps of professionalism but there is tentative optimism for this tournament after consecutive wooden spoons in the Six Nations. Sean Lynn\u2019s arrival this year has brought renewed confidence that Wales are on the right lines, as did the drawn two-Test series against the Wallaroos in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on the right track. I set targets after the Six Nations to the players. They went away and have come back in better shape,\u201d Lynn said. \u201cThe big emphasis is making sure that we can play with the intensity that I want us to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynn has been given a huge boost for the opener too, with the co-captain Alex Callender fit to start after overcoming an ankle injury suffered against Australia. For Scotland, the hooker Lana Skeldon is fit having recovered from injury. This is fast becoming one of women\u2019s rugby\u2019s great rivalries and this weekend, the stakes are perhaps higher than they have ever been.<\/p>\n
The game in Salford is part of the first double-header of the tournament on an opening weekend when all 16 teams are in action. Saturday begins with the second game in Group A as Australia begin their bid to reach a first Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup final. They take on Samoa at 12pm.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Later on Saturday two of the pre-tournament favourites, Canada and France, open their campaigns against Fiji and Italy respectively.<\/p>\n Brazil make their tournament debut on Sunday against South Africa as part of a double bill at Northampton also featuring Ireland against Japan. The defending champions New Zealand will close out the opening weekend in a 5.30pm kick-off against Spain in York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be on day two of the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup but Scotland\u2019s meeting with Wales on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-364752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115072696697795999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}