Scotland cruise to victory over Fiji

Scotland head into the defence of their WXV 2 crown after a nine-try victory over Fiji in the first meeting between the women’s international teams.

They had to bide their time as Fiji had most of the momentum in the early stages but once the Scots got their first points on the board they were hard to stop.

Tries from Lisa Thomson, Chloe Rollie, Lana Skeldon, as well as a penalty try, and three conversions from Meryl Smith had Scotland comfortably ahead at the break.

A further four tries in the second half gave Scotland a large cushion on the scoreline, and a huge boost going into their upcoming games against Italy, Japan and Australia in South Africa.

The Scots scored after 13 minutes when they were awarded a penalty try after their maul was stopped inches short.

Referee Maria Latos awarded the home side all seven points and Anasimeci Korovata was shown a yellow card.

A great run from Francesca McGhie was cut out just short but a wonderful line from Thomson in the next phase gave Scotland their second try, which Smith stepped up to convert.

Rollie got the third, set up by Smith from short-range, to extend the Scots’ advantage inside 20 minutes.

It took 30 minutes for Fiji to respond when Adita Milinia grabbed onto a Scotland knock-on and ran all of 55 metres to score. Luisa Tisolo couldn’t add the extras though as she ran out of time with the kick.

After some confusion, Lana Skeldon was awarded Scotland’s fourth try, and her 17th for her country. Rachel Malcolm latched onto the ball from the line-out and the Scottish maul made it to the line where Skeldon tapped it down.

A rapid start to the second half saw Malcolm touch down just three minutes in and Smith made no mistake with her kick.

The second of the half came just three minutes later when McGhie, in her last act of the game, got involved with the scoring as she collected a grubber kick to sprint over in the corner.

Lucia Scott, making just her second appearance for Scotland, scored her first after being set-up by substitute Evie Gallagher and made it six for Scotland before an excellent solo run from Rhona Lloyd put the Scots 44 points ahead with 20 minutes left.

Thomson got the final try for Scotland before Fiji grabbed a late consolation of their own through Aviame Veidreyaki.