Gary Heatly in Manchester
Rachel Malcolm has played alongside Lana Skeldon long enough to know just how important the hooker is.
When the 31-year-old from Hawick, who plays her club rugby for Bristol Bears, plays well then Scotland tend to play well.
As a result, when she went down screaming in pain just before half-time in the recent Summer Test versus Ireland, 34-year-old back-row Malcolm was as worried as the rest of us.
However, 81-capper Skeldon has recovered remarkably well from the ankle issue sustained in that game and will be wearing the number two jersey for the Scots as they take on Wales in their Pool B opener in the Women’s Rugby World Cup at Salford Community Stadium in Manchester on Saturday (2.45pm, live on the BBC).
And Malcolm, who will be wearing number six in the game, said: “Lana’s proven that she is invaluable to Scotland with the number of times she’s represented us.
“She’s one of the highest-capped players Scotland women has ever seen and I think every single time that I’ve had the opportunity to play alongside Lana, she’s made a difference to every game.
“She’s someone who quietly goes about some pretty impressive business.
“She’s very evasive as an attacker for a front-row forward. She’s someone that brings a slightly different threat to anyone else in our team in terms of that ability to evade defenders and get us front foot ball.
“She’s obviously very experienced around the set piece side of things and I think she brings a huge confidence to our set piece as a team when she’s playing.
“I think Lana’s x-factor is her defensive organisation, her chop tackling and her turnover ability and I think to have someone like that coming into this Wales game against a team who we know are going to be pretty direct and have some pretty big ball carriers is so important.
“And it is so important just to have someone of Lana’s experience around the group.
“I definitely think there’s been a little lift in confidence in the group knowing one, she’s okay first and foremost after Ireland, and two, knowing we will have her out on the pitch with us on Saturday.”
Every player is going to be excited ahead of a first game of a World Cup, but Malcolm believes the excitement levels in the squad are just right ahead of the match.
“I think this camp is always a pretty excitable bunch,” the skipper, who will be playing for Trailfinders Women in 2025/26, added.
“We’re pretty lucky that energy isn’t something that we have to try and create out of nowhere. We’ve got a group filled with characters both on and off the pitch.
“My job is always around gauging where I need to almost temper it a little bit and I think this week arriving at the World Cup – for a lot of people it’s their first World Cup – in itself is such a buzz.
“What we said as a leadership team was Friday, Saturday, Sunday when we first got here enjoy it, embrace it, be a part of all the opportunities that we got in that period.
Then once we got to Monday, we set our mindset anchor for the week, we set our rugby focusses for the week and it’s business mode.
“I think we’ve got the temperature just right in terms of we’ve obviously got excitement bubbling, but it feels quite calm. It feels like we’re ready.
“Training’s been really sharp this week, probably the sharpest we’ve trained in the build up.”
The tournament in England runs from August 22 to September 27 and the Scotland group stage matches are against Wales on Saturday, Fiji in Manchester on August 30 and Canada in Exeter on September 6.
The top two from each pool will make it through to the last eight in the 16-team event with a quarter-final spot definitely achievable for the Scots.
Scotland squad to play Wales: Chloe Rollie; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Francesca McGhie; Helen Nelson, Leia Brebner-Holden; Leah Bartlett, Lana Skeldon, Elliann Clarke, Emma Wassell, Sarah Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (C), Rachel McLachlan, Evie Gallagher. Subs: Elis Martin, Molly Wright, Lisa Cockburn, Jade Konkel, Eva Donaldson, Alex Stewart, Caity Mattinson, Beth Blacklock.
The Wales matchday 23 is here.
Lana Skeldon is pictured – thanks to Ruby Adam Photography
From August 7 until September 30, GH Media will be following the Scotland World Cup journey all of the way. We will be at all of the Scotland matches down south and will be bringing you all of the interviews and news from camp as well as taking a wider look at the tournament as a whole and its impact on the women’s game. Thanks to Quirky Chocolate and other supporters for allowing this content to happen and to readers for engaging with it.