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Scotland's Evie Gallagher on the best 25th birthday present
By Gary Heatly
Evie Gallagher admits she could not have received a better 25th birthday present than helping Scotland to a comprehensive win over Wales at the Rugby World Cup.
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And the 38-8 bonus point victory in the Pool B opener at the Salford Community Stadium in Manchester was doubly special for Gallagher as it was her first ever World Cup outing having missed the last showpiece event in New Zealand due to injury.
Having turned 25 on Friday, the number eight was fully focused on the big match come Saturday and the Bristol Bears player delivered a typically assured performance and bagged one of the six tries scored by her team.
“Oh my God, I loved my birthday weekend, it could not have been any better,” the Stirling County product, who made 10 carries, 84 metres and 12 tackles in the game, beamed.
“The girls made me feel special on Friday and then there are just too many words to try and describe Saturday, it was just incredible. I’m so, so proud of everyone that pulled on the shirt.
“We spoke about getting a fast start and then staying on top as we weren’t happy with how we did in parts of our warm-up games.
“The start was fast and we soon had 17 points on the board, but what was especially pleasing in the first half was then keeping Wales out towards the 40-minute mark and making sure we had a decent lead at the break.
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“I think when we have momentum, we’re a different team and we kept it going in this match and that was really good. We knew an 80-minute performance was within us and we delivered it.
“To get a try for me personally was nice, but probably the best thing about it for me was finally getting a World Cup cap and now I just want more of it.”
Next up for the Scots in Pool B is Fiji this coming Saturday in Manchester before a meeting with world number two side Canada in Exeter on September 6th.
Scotland are now favourites to progress to the quarter-finals behind likely group winners Canada.
Against Wales, winger Francesca McGhie stood out with a hat-trick of tries and Gallagher feels there is plenty more to come from her young team mate.
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“She was our superstar out there, she’s ridiculous,” Gallagher stated. “Fran’s got such a big future ahead of her and I can’t believe it’s her first time coming to a World Cup because she looked so calm and composed whenever she got the ball and she seems to take everything in her stride.
“I honestly don’t think she knows how good she is and how good she can become as she is only 22. She is already confident, but I think, in terms of where she can go with her game, the sky is the limit.”
Many believe the sky is the limit for Gallagher too.
Last March captain Rachel Malcolm said Gallagher was “the heartbeat of the Scotland team at the minute” and nothing much has changed since then.
Her performance level is very consistent and her super strengths are reading the game defensively and being a real nuisance at the breakdown.
It is no surprise that whenever the first ever women’s British & Irish Lions tour in 2027 to New Zealand is mentioned, more often than not Gallagher is in the conversation.
Head coach Bryan Easson knows how important Gallagher is to everything his side does and he said: “You talk to her about missing the last World Cup and she just brushes it off and says it’s part of the learning process.
“She believes that missing the last World Cup has probably made her the player that she is. She was driven by that adversity and she’s had other adversity in her life too.
“She’s always pushed on to become the best she can be. She’s a quiet one, she’s a bit of a silent assassin. Evie’s great around the group, she just gets on and does her business.
“She is a great individual to have around. She genuinely is a world class player. Some of her defensive work is brilliant, her attacking contact work as well is exceptional and she is a big ball carrier for us. We’re lucky to have her.”
And Gallagher herself believes that the Scots can get even better going forward after the benchmark showing versus Wales which was a first World Cup win for the country since 2010 against Sweden.
“Yeah, I think there’s bits to do that we definitely need to work on,” she said post-Wales.
“In the game at the weekend our breakdown work wasn’t good enough and when we keep ball in hand in the right areas we can be even more threatening than we were.
“These are 100 percent things we will be looking to fix up before we take on Fiji – I’m just excited to see where we can go from here.”
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