Scotland got their Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign for 2025 off to a winning start on Saturday in wet conditions against Wales at Hive Stadium.
Sarah Bonar, Emma Orr and Leah Bartlett scored tries and Helen Nelson kicked nine points in the 24-21 triumph in a game that had it all, some good and some bad.
Highlights and details can be found here.
Here are five talking points from the game…
Admirable Nelson
The stand-off and vice-captain was playing in her 66th match for her country and, in the tough conditions, her game management was much needed and she was named Player of the Match. It has come on a lot on the last couple of years while her kicking was on point and she now has 194 points to make her Scotland women’s second highest points scorer of all time. Former player Paula Chalmers leads the way with an amazing 463.
Classy Thomson-Orr combo
There is no two ways about it, this centre pairing is just class. Lisa Thomson and Emma Orr are two very different players, but they compliment each other so well and they are just quality rugby players. They made a number of breaks through the Wales defence in this game while they both played their part in Orr’s try and with Nelson at 10 and these two in the midfield the Scots are well served in that area.
Hollie’s happiness
When the media spoke to Hollie Cunningham she was buzzing, but nervous ahead of her Scotland debut. The second-row should have been the first, but not the second as she put in an excellent performance which made it easy for all to see why head coach Bryan Easson was keen to get her on board. As she has said herself, she is not a fancy player, but she puts in the hard yards for the team and worked her socks off here.
Scotland won ugly and it’s a great skill to have in the armoury
Two years ago before Scotland went on this excellent run of 13 wins in 17 Test matches they may well have lost this game. When Wales got things back to 24-21 late on the ‘old’ Scotland might have gone into their shells and panicked, but not now. The experienced players and the newer ones – Adelle Ferrie for example coming on in the last five minutes for a debut in a pressure cooker situation – stuck together and managed the closing minutes very well.
TM Oh it’s him again
Television Match Official Oli Kellett – along with Foul Play Review Officer Ian Tempest – had a busy day and the TMO’s voice was heard having chats with referee Kat Roche more times that we heard the stadium announcer – or so it seemed. We all want the game of rugby to be as safe as possible and for decisions to be correct, but it will be hard to keep attracting younger people to the game if they are as ‘stop start’ as this one while, with two 20-minute reds here and the way they were communicated, the foul play review bunker still needs some tweaking too.
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations runs from March 22 to April 26 and, after a trip to France in round two on March 29, Scotland are at Hive Stadium in round three versus Italy on April 13 – get tickets for the two Scotland remaining home games here.
Scotland squad that played Wales: Chloe Rollie; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Francesca McGhie; Helen Nelson, Leia Brebner-Holden; Anne Young, Lana Skeldon, Elliann Clarke, Hollie Cunningham, Sarah Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (C), Rachel McLachlan, Evie Gallagher. Subs used: Elis Martin, Leah Bartlett, Christine Belisle, Adelle Ferrie, Alex Stewart, Jade Konkel, Caity Mattinson. Sub unused: Evie Wills.
Helen Nelson and Emma Orr are pictured celebrating the win over Wales – thanks to Scottish Rugby for the photo
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