Scotland loosehead prop Leah Bartlett wants to see “more cohesion in defence” when the team travel to Dublin for their final Women’s Six Nations match against Ireland on Sunday.
The Scottish performance levels improved against France last weekend compared to where they were in the defeats to England and Italy in the previous two outings.
That allowed them to pick up a four-try bonus point, but they still lost 69-28 at Hive Stadium and conceded 11 tries.
It means that the Scots have not tasted victory since round one of the tournament in Cardiff against Wales and are fifth in the standings before they take on third placed Ireland.
With over 28,000 tickets already sold for the big round five match at the Aviva Stadium, Ireland will have their tails up and 27-year-old, 53-capper Bartlett knows that Scotland will have to play very well if they are to get anything out of the trip.
“We definitely took a step forward against France, but against Ireland I would like to see a bit more cohesion in defence,” she stated.
“Defence has always been one of our stand-out qualities, something that we’ve always been really good at, we take a lot of pride in our defence.
“We wanted to get our pride and passion in defence back against France and I think there were some good strides forward in that area, but we have to defend as a unit for 80 minutes and never let our standards drop.
“And I think converting chances in attack has been a work-on for us in this tournament and I want to see us taking another step forward in that part of the game too.
“We scored four tries against France and our attack was better, but there were a lot of missed opportunities out there – are making the opportunities, we now just need to make the right decisions to convert them more often.”
Leah Bartlett is pictured on the attack against France last time out – thanks to N50 Photography
The Women’s Six Nations is here and the 2026 event runs from April 11 to May 17 and, between April 6 and May 20, GH Media will be covering Scotland’s campaign and the wider tournament – keep an eye out for content and thanks to everyone who supports GH Media’s work within women’s rugby