'This is our benchmark': Rachel Malcolm makes honest Scotland assessment

The WXV Global Series is here and Scotland kicked off their campaign with a 64-26 defeat to Canada at the Hive Stadium.

In spite of showing plenty of heart and determination, with tries from Evie Gallagher, Shona Campbell, Lana Skeldon and Rhona Lloyd, Dave Butcher’s side couldn’t do enough to outpower Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 finalists Canada.

Speaking after the defeat, the Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm explained, “We’re feeling disappointment to some extent. They [Canada] probably won the physicality battle both sides of the ball and we knew coming into this, Canada are World Cup finalists and arguably have one of the best attacks in the world, so we always knew it was going to be tough.

“We grew into the game a little bit, particularly in that second half. This is our benchmark today, so the most important thing is how we look at it and how we respond next week.

“We can take positives from how we made something out of nothing today. The tries that we scored weren’t the most clinical or the prettiest, but we found a way to get over the try line, and it’s about having those moments, but also building more phases,” she added.

“We want to see more phase play and control in those middle thirds in particular, but that will come.

“Players like Katie Buchanan and Ceitidh Ainsworth have got massive futures for us and did brilliantly off the bench.

“To get them blooded and get them experienced is really important, so they’ve done really well.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the WXV Global Series, the Scotland captain said, “We want to build performances, we want to look at areas of our game, and we’ve got an entirely new coaching staff, so it’s about learning how they want us to play as well.

“These three first games [Canada, New Zealand and Australia] are very much about that development, and the second two games [both against Australia] are all about performance and results, so that gives us that nice break in the middle of it.

“We know every single team that we’ve got in this tournament are going to push us to our absolute limits, so ultimately, we’ve got to be our best to even compete.

“I think today we saw glimpses of that, but next week I hope we see patches and much more of it,” the experienced flanker concluded.

Scotland will now prepare to take on the Black Ferns, who put on a convincing 28-14 performance over France in their opening game, on Saturday 19 September at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh.