This week the Scotland Guinness Women’s Six Nations squad members have some days off – and they could be some of the most important days of the whole tournament.
Most of the playing group headed into the pre-competition camps and then the matches against Wales and France off the back of a condensed PWR season down south. Others came straight in off the back of playing for Edinburgh Rugby in the Celtic Challenge or playing in France.
Both Test matches in the Six Nations so far have been physical encounters and the players will be back together from early next week at their Oriam base on the outskirts of Edinburgh ahead of the remaining clashes with Italy on April 13, England on April 20 and Ireland on April 26.
That is three back-to-back Tests in the space of two weeks so the period the players are in just now away from the group regrouping, resting and recovering is very important. They will of course be ticking over their fitness, but will also have individualised plans from head of physical performance Josie Symonds on how to recovery properly to ‘go again’ in a few days’ time.
Before WXV 2 late last year Symonds said: “One thing we are really working on is recovery and behaviours around that.
“Recovery is key as games come thick and fast – recovery is very important.”
“We’ve got a big week of recovery coming,” loosehead prop Anne Young confirmed after the France game at the weekend.
“I think we will be able to go really hard in training next week after our recovery this week.
“Then we’ve got three massive games ahead of us, two of which will be at home at the Hive, which will be really exciting for us.”
Centre Lisa Thomson said: “Recovery and down time is so important, not just physically but mentally as well. I think coming off the back of a club season that was pretty hard going nobody has had a lot of switch-off time recently.
“In these few days people can just get away and mentally switch off and physically recover. A lot of girls haven’t had a week off since probably before Christmas, so this week will do us the world of good.”
And skipper Rachel Malcolm added: “I think there’s a lot of people that have played some pretty high minutes in the last two weeks off the back of a busy PWR season so there’s a big opportunity [this week] to get a fair bit of rest in.
“We want to go hard as soon as we come back in and get the squad back together next week.
“We’ll be in from likely the Tuesday with a Sunday game against Italy so we’ve got a good chunk of time to get the bodies recovered and then build up that sharpness again.
“We want to go in and be able to play physical and fast during a big 80 minutes against Italy next up.
“Recovery is key for that just now I’m genuinely super excited to see what we can build towards from next week onwards.”
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations runs from March 22 to April 26 and, next up, Scotland are at Hive Stadium in round three versus Italy on April 13 – get tickets for the two Scotland remaining home games here.
The Scotland squad are pictured in France
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