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One injury-enforced change to Scotland starting XV for Fiji
By Gary Heatly
Scotland head coach Bryan Easson says “respect” for Fiji and the dangers that they pose – plus a desire to keep up momentum – led him to make only one injury-enforced change to his starting XV for Saturday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup Pool B clash between the nations.
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The Scots head into their second group stage match off the back of an excellent 38-8 bonus point win over Wales in Manchester while Fiji are heading into the game having lost 65-7 to Canada in York.
Ten places separate the teams as number six in the world rankings take on number 16, plus Scotland defeated Fiji 59-15 in Edinburgh last September, so everything points towards a Scotland victory as they look to keep their journey to the quarter-finals on course.
However, Easson is treating this game just as importantly as he treated the clash against Wales and as importantly as he will treat next week’s Canada game.
In terms of the starting XV, the one change sees Elis Martin starts at hooker with Lana Skeldon injured.
Loosehead prop Anne Young and second-row Adelle Ferrie come onto the bench with Molly Wright shifting to the 16 shirt to cover hooker and Jade Konkel out injured.
“I have a lot of respect for Fiji, they’re a good side,” Easson said as he named his squad on Thursday. “We’ve watched them very closely, we’ve got to respect Fiji like we respected Wales and that’s the way we’ve treated it this week, we have been very focused in training.
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“There were considerations about making more changes, but I just thought given the way we played last week, the way we brought momentum into the week and the way we’ve trained as well it was a bit of a no-brainer to make minimal changes.
“We’ve been able to look at the fitness and we’ve been able to manage that for each player and as coaches we’ve got to take a lot from the way the players recovered post-Wales between Sunday and Monday. After a big game, any big game, indeed any big win, it’s always quite difficult to get the intensity up in a Tuesday training session, but the girls were excellent.
“That shows where our group is mentally and they just want to keep getting better and better.
“The girls know that we have more in us than we showed against Wales and we want to keep building as we move forward.”
Loughborough Lightning hooker Elis Martin, 26, has 23 caps under her belt and was at the last World Cup, but this Fiji game will be just her third start for her country.
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Before the tournament she was sweating that she might miss out with a foot injury, but she recovered and was excellent off the bench versus Wales.
Captain Rachel Malcolm said: “Elis is someone who I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for because her story over the last four or five years has been phenomenal.
“She’s someone who came back from pretty major injury very early in her career. She was in and out of training camps for a little while and then she got pulled into the World Cup squad last time due to injury, but didn’t play.
“Since then, she’s become such a main character within the squad both on and off the pitch. To see her thriving now has been so inspiring for me because she has worked so hard for it.
“Elis is someone that has truly grafted both on and off the pitch and I think the way she influences this group in terms of the happiness that she brings and just the personality she brings is someone that we all love.”
This time last year Adelle Ferrie, 27, was playing club rugby and working full-time.
Now she has six Scotland caps under her belt after being called up for the Six Nations and her seventh might come off the bench against Fiji in what would be her World Cup debut.
“I think Adelle’s probably fed up of my voice to be honest because I’ve been in her ear for the last however many months about this and that, but I just want her to get better and show what she is all about and she is doing that now,” Malcolm said about the Corstorphine Cougars and Edinburgh Rugby second-row.
“She’s obviously slightly older than some of our first caps have been in recent years and I think that maturity really shines through.
“She’s put the work in, she absolutely deserves it and for me she’s probably one of the best physical specimens that we’ve produced in a long time.
“Her strength, her power, her speed, her ability to jump and lift in the lineout has all given us another dimension and I think as she continues to learn the game she’s going to grow into a real key performer for us.”
After the Wales result the hype back home around this Scotland squad has cranked up a notch and it is now up to Malcolm, Martin, Ferrie and Co to show that they have what it takes to string positive performances and positive results together.
Scotland team to play Fiji:
15. Chloe Rollie
14. Rhona Lloyd
13. Emma Orr
12. Lisa Thomson
11. Francesca McGhie
10. Helen Nelson
9. Leia Brebner-Holden
1. Leah Bartlett
2. Elis Martin
3. Elliann Clarke
4. Emma Wassell
5. Sarah Bonar
6. Rachel Malcolm
7. Rachel McLachlan
8. Evie Gallagher
Replacements
16. Molly Wright
17. Anne Young
18. Lisa Cockburn
19. Adelle Ferrie
20. Eva Donaldson
21. Alex Stewart
22. Caity Mattinson
23. Beth Blacklock
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