Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm was frustrated by the end result in the 64-26 home defeat to Canada on Saturday, but saw enough positives from her side that she feels can be built on.
After a tricky Women’s Six Nations campaign earlier in the year and then a change of head coach, this was always going to be a tough WXV Global Series opener versus the world’s third ranked side and so it proved.
Canada led 31-12 at half-time and, by the end of proceedings, had run in 10 tries to four to give them a comfortable victory at Hive Stadium.
Things will not get any easier when world ranked number two side New Zealand come to Edinburgh next up this coming weekend, but Scotland did do some good things against the Canadians.
“I think how we built into the second half in particular was pleasing,” back-row Malcolm said.
“We always knew this game was going to probably be a challenge beyond us.
“We set ourselves the challenge of trying to fight and show our identity and I think in the first half we were probably disappointed with what we put out there.
“However, in the second half I think we started winning collisions and we saw the fruits of that at times.
“What we can pick from this game to take forward is where we saw success and what led to those bits of success because we scored tries.
“Now it’s about looking at how we can replicate those things time and time again.
“I also think some of our younger girls that came off the bench showed a huge amount of promise and talent.”
The Scotland try scorers were back-row Evie Gallagher, winger Shona Campbell, hooker Lana Skeldon and winger Rhona Lloyd versus Canada with stand-off Helen Nelson kicking three conversions.
Interim head coach Dave Butcher added: “Sitting in the coaching box, I was obviously not happy with the scoreline, but the endeavour that we showed was good and we asked the players to be really brave.
“If you ask a team to be really brave, then you can’t penalise them when they are brave. I think our job now is to encourage that braveness, but then understand how we execute through it because you could see little glimpses, it just wasn’t consistent.
“I think the areas that probably disappointed us a little bit was our physicality around the breakdown and keeping the ball. But we’ll come back better.”
No.8 Becky Boyd will be assessed early in the week after suffering a facial injury which forced her off in the first half and required stitches.
Next up in the Vodafone Scotland WXV Series campaign – part of the wider WXV Global Series presented by Mitsubishi Electric featuring the top sides in the world – is New Zealand on September 19 and then Scotland are hosting Australia on September 26, both at the Hive.
Scotland’s away WXV Global Series fixtures will take place against Australia on October 17 and October 23.
Rachel Malcolm is pictured during the national anthem – thanks to Ruby Adam Photography