Scotland climb to new high of fifth in world after Fiji triumph

SCOTLAND have risen to fifth in the world rankings – their highest ever position – following their 59-15 win over Fiji on Saturday. That result – the team’s biggest home victory this century – combined with Ireland’s 36-10 win over Australia means that the Wallaroos and Scots will swap places in World Rugby’s list when it is officially updated at noon today (Monday).

England, New Zealand, Canada and France will continue to occupy the top four spots. Ireland, the USA, Italy and Wales will complete the top ten. 

With games against Italy, Japan and Australia to follow in WXV2 from the end of this month, Bryan Easson’s team are by no means guaranteed to hold on to fifth spot for any length of time. Nonetheless, their rise to that height, achieved on the back of 10 wins in their last 13 Tests, is a massive achievement in a relatively short period.

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As recently as April last year, a thumping 55-0 loss away to France was Scotland’s 12th defeat in a row. Just six days later, however, they brought that losing run to an end with a 29-21 win over Italy, and in the ensuing year and a half they have only lost to France and England at home and Ireland away. 

As scrum-half Caity Mattinson said on Saturday night, one of the remarkable things about this turnaround is how it has been achieved with the same core group of players. They simply turned the corner thanks to a combination of their own hard work and the increasing benefits of professionalism.

 “We were just talking about it in the changing room,” Mattinson said. “Because we are now going to be up to fifth in the world this week, and I was chatting to Rhona [Lloyd] about it and she was saying she can remember when we were 13th, so to be building to this level has been great.

“There has not been a huge amount of personnel changes, but players like Evie G [Gallagher], Meryl [Smith] and Emma Orr have been tearing it up. They are massive for the growth of this squad, and where we can go is exciting, especially a year out from a World Cup.”

Scotland fly out to South Africa on Thursday to start preparations for WXV2, in which their first game is against Italy on Saturday 28th. This year’s fixtures in the tournament look tougher, but Mattinson, who on Saturday was playing for the first time since a neck injury in April’s Six Nations game against Ireland, believes the squad are ready to rise to the challenge.

“I think we’re physically in the best shape we’ve ever been in as a squad,” the 28-year-old continued. “We’ll find out the answer to that at the end of three tough WXV 2 matches – or see how we’re feeling heading into the third game, I guess – but I certainly think we’re all feeling physically prepared and we’re excited about heading to South Africa for the tournament. We’re really building an identity around the intent to play quickly and everyone has been challenged physically to do that.”

Scotland were certainly challenged physically and mentally in their first ever match against Fiji, whose adventurous style of play was very different to the kind of rugby usually witnessed in the Six Nations. “Really unpredictable at times,” was Mattinson’s verdict.  “And their skill set just allows them to do things one-handed when things look like they’ve gone wrong for them – and suddenly the ball is in someone else’s hands and they’re making a line break, but in generally we’re pretty happy with how things went.

 “It was not like any game of rugby I’ve ever played. I think there were some good bits and then there were bits where we got caught up in the way that they wanted to play and we went away from what we were trying to do, but I think that happened less than it could have. I thought Meryl was outstanding at 10 and controlled the game, so we’re pretty pleased on the whole.”

Mattinson had every right to be pretty pleased with her individual performance, too, at the end of a long period of rehabilitation from that injury in Belfast. “I had a ligament injury at the back of my neck as a result of the collision in the Ireland game, and it was just pretty frustrating rehab, to be honest,” she recalled.

“We would think it was fine and then I’d have nervy symptoms flaring up in my hands, and we had to make sure that everything was all right because the issue was my neck and that is more than rugby. So more than anything it was making sure that the medics were confident and I had to make sure that I was confident that if I got hit again it was not going to cause me any big problems.

“I’d say it has been one of my toughest challenges mentally in terms of injury just because of the nature of it – and the nature of being on a spinal board for seven hours after it happened probably added to that in terms of getting back too. But I’ve been very well looked after and I didn’t think about it at all this week.” 

TURNING THE TABLES

After beating Colombia in a World Cup play-off at the start of 2022, Scotland lost 12 games in a row. Since then, however, they have won 10 of their last 13.

SCOTLAND’s 12 CONSECUTIVE DEFEATS

Six Nations 2022:

• Scotland 5 England 57
• Wales 24 Scotland 19
• Scotland 8 France 28
• Italy 20 Scotland 13
• Ireland 15 Scotland 14

Friendly:

World Cup: 

•  Wales 18 Scotland 15
• Australia 14 Scotland 12
• New Zealand 57 Scotland 0

Six Nations 2023:

• England 58 Scotland 7
• Scotland 22 Wales 34
• France 55 Scotland 0

AND THEIR LAST 13 GAMES

Six Nations 2023:

• Scotland 29 Italy 21
• Scotland 36 Ireland 10

Friendly:

WXV2 2023:

• South Africa 17 Scotland 31
• USA 14 Scotland 24
• Japan 7 Scotland 38

Six Nations 2024:

• Wales 18 Scotland 20
• Scotland 5 France 15
• Scotland 0 England 46
• Italy 10 Scotland 17
• Ireland 18 Scotland 15

Vodafone Series:

• Scotland 40 Wales 14
• Scotland 59 Fiji 15.

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Scotland v Fiji: convincing win sets hosts up nicely for WXV2