Five key factors as Scotland go fifth in World Rugby Women’s rankings

A few weeks ago captain Rachel Malcolm, the Scottish skipper, said that the aim of the next year or so leading into the Rugby World Cup in England was “to be competing with the top five teams in the world”, but even she could not have imagined they would get into the top five so quickly.

Yes, there is still plenty of work to be done to be competing with France,  Canada, New Zealand and world number one side England on a regular basis, but Scotland’s rapid rise to fifth above Australia after recent comprehensive wins over Wales and Fiji should be celebrated.

Remember, this was a team that was outside the top 10 in the rankings as recently as last April and, at that point, they had lost 12 Tests in a row.

Since then the turnaround has been nothing short of amazing. Ten wins have come in the last 13 Tests – Italy, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, USA, Japan, Wales, Italy again, Wales again and Fiji being dispatched with losses have come versus France, England and Ireland – seven of the wins came in a record row and the WXV 2 title was claimed in 2023 in South Africa.

Before the current run, Scotland won 10 and drew 1 out of 41 Tests dating back to 2017 so while professional contracts and such like have certainly helped, the coaches and the playing staff must take massive credit for where they have taken this team with WXV 2 just around the corner again.

Here are five key things that have helped Scotland get to fifth in the world…

The Italian job in April 2023

Scotland began the Six Nations of 2023 with a 58-7 loss to England in Newcastle, a 34-22 defeat to Wales in Edinburgh and a 55-0 thumping to France in Vannes.

Those three defeats added to nine others and 12 defeats in a row was an unwanted statistic.

The France game was a bruising encounter and was on a Sunday, so Scotland had just a few days to lick their wounds and ‘go’ again at home to Italy the following Saturday.

And, whatever happened in those few days, they did ‘go again’ and produced an excellent performance to win 29-21 and spark celebrations.

It was the first Scottish victory since early 2022 versus Colombia and, from that moment on, the whole mood changed.

In that game Scotland could have imploded too, they were 24-7 up before Italy got it back to 24-21, but the hosts scored the winning try through hooker Lana Skeldon and they have had a grittier demeanour ever since.

Strong leadership

Head coach Bryan Easson and captain Rachel Malcolm must have been sick of sitting in front of the press after matches game after game and telling us that they knew the wins were going to come as the losses notched up.

They never lost faith though and their backing and support of the playing squad and keeping their confidence up has been key over the last 17 months or so and even more important before that when defeats were coming.

Easson is very good at talking up certain players at the right times in the press while back-row Malcolm has a way with words and a number of her teammates talk about how the messaging and clarity in her team talks really does set them up for games well.

Malcolm’s vice-captain Helen Nelson, the stand-off, should not be forgotten in all of this too because, although a different character than Malcolm, they work well together.

Defensive desire

Former Glasgow Warriors back-row Tyrone Holmes has been with the squad for around five years now and in the last 17 months the defence has really come into its own on his watch.

Last year, in the aforementioned Italy game that started the good run, once it went to 24-21 there were some great defensive sets in the last 20 minutes to make sure the team got the victory.

And during the Six Nations earlier this year the side defended like trojans to get over the line against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park to win away to the Welsh for the first time in 20 years.

Assistant coach Holmes, who earned one Scotland men’s cap, looks after the defensive side of things and he believes there has been a real shift in terms of belief when it comes to that part of the game and that the players are showing a maturity when it comes to keeping other teams out.

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Sharpening up of the attack

The attack has been, and continues to be, a big ‘work on’ for the Scotland squad, but 99 points in the last two games – 40 versus Wales and 59 versus Fiji – would suggest that things are really starting to click in that area.

After two of the 10 recent wins, former England men’s cap Matt Banahan joined the coaching set-up as an assistant before Spain last year and was charged with getting the attack really firing.

As he only relatively recently retired from the game at the top level, the players have spoken about it being very easy to understand what he is looking for and that there is great dialogue there to help make constant improvements.

Scotland have some great finishers who have been around a while now, full-back Chloe Rollie has 23 Test tries and winger Rhona Lloyd has 24, but other sharp attackers like wingers Francesca McGhie and Coreen Grant, stand-off centre Meryl Smith and centre Emma Orr have now joined the party while there are three good scrum-halves there to set it all in motion.

Evie Gallagher and Emma Orr are world class

Throughout the last 13 games, there have been excellent performances by a number of Scotland players and during the 10 wins it has been more about the collective rather than individuals, but No.8 Evie Gallagher and centre Emma Orr deserve special mention.

They have taken their respective games to another level since last April and have been among the first names on the teamsheet you would wager.

Gallagher, 24 with 29 caps, missed the Rugby World Cup 2021 played in 2022 through injury, but since then she has been immense on both sides of the ball.

Her ball carrying is excellent as is her link play while defensively she hardly misses a tackle and loves a turnover.

Orr is still just 21 and has 21 caps under her belt, but she has fitted seamlessly into international rugby over the last couple of years.

The way she drifts and produces arcing runs from 13 is a joy to watch and also helps set up the back three while she is defensively sound and has a great rugby brain.