Your post-match reaction

Scotland attach coach Matt Banahan credits the growth of women’s sport with helping to supplement Scotland’s rise over the last 12 months.

Flanker Alex Stewart, 20, has become a key part of Scotland’s forward pack while Gloucester backs Leia Brebner-Holden, 22, and 20-year-old Lucia Scott made their debuts in last weekend’s win over Wales.

“I think the growth of women’s sports has been massive,” Banahan said. “The exposure that they’re getting in the professional game, higher-quality coaches and opposition, is only going to grow the game.

“We are on a factor of that, we’ve got a group of players at an age range that are absorbing a lot of information and growing their game because they’re having a bigger expansion of what they’re being exposed to.

“Sport in general now for women and girls, they’re able to start at younger so that the girls that are playing now have been playing it for 10 years, from being a wee girl, rather than – in years gone by – starting playing at university.”

And it has been a meteoric rise. Between March 2017 and April 2023, Scotland had won 10 of 41 Tests. If they beat Fiji on Saturday, it will be 10 wins in their last 13.

“Sport’s all about confidence and the more wins that help with confidence, but the performance is more base for me,” Banahan added.

“It’s a great group of girls to be involved in. I just finished my first year and hopefully people can see what I’ve been trying to bed in and at the weekend it was nice to see the hard work that they’ve put in to show on the pitch with the amount of opportunities we created and also took on the pitch.”