Winger Rhona Lloyd and No.8 Emily Coubrough have been ruled out of Scotland’s round three Women’s Six Nations match in Italy on Saturday.
Both players came off during the second half of the round two 84-7 defeat to England at Murrayfield at the weekend and will not come through the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocols in time to be considered for the crucial match at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma.
With Jade Konkel, Lisa Cockburn, Caity Mattinson, Christine Belisle, Beth Blacklock and Molly Wright not involved post-Rugby World Cup in this campaign and Anne Young, Sarah Bonar, Evie Gallagher, Lisa Thomson and Emma Orr out injured, losing 64-capper Lloyd and two-capper Coubrough is another tough break.
“Rhona won’t be available this week, unfortunately. Similarly with Emily as well. Two HIAs,” senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham said on Tuesday.
“Missing them is a big blow. They’re huge for us [and right now] we are definitely challenging the depth of our player pool.
“There’s always a silver lining though and we’re excited by that opportunity to expose more talent onto the field because, obviously, when players do come back fit and available we want more selection headaches.
“They are big losses for us, obviously, because they’re great players for us, but we have to adapt and move forward.”
Skipper Rachel Malcolm (knee issue) is set to be involved while centre Evie Wills (arm injury) has not been ruled out as yet, but it would seem unlikely that she will feature given the pain she was in when she went off at the weekend.
“We’re still assessing them, Rachel is fine and being monitored, but she’s fine,” Cunningham added.
“Evie is in the same position and is being monitored at this stage. That’s where they’re at really.
“Rachel is huge for the team, for us and the country. She’s a phenomenal leader both on and off the field and her presence is always something huge for us.
“And with Evie, we’ll wait to see on that one.”
The Scotland matchday 23 is set to be named on Thursday before the squad fly to Italy and the group have tried to park the England game as quickly as possible and have been looking back on the good bits from the round one win over Wales in recent days.
Scotland are sitting fourth in the standings and winless Italy sixth and Cunningham concluded: “Italy are a good side.
“They’re playing some real nice stuff, they scored 20 points last week against Ireland despite losing and they play a brand of rugby that’s built around speed and moving the ball.
“We know we’ve got to be sharp defensively, but also, looking at the England game,, we gave away possession quite early in our phase play so it’s going to be about retaining possession much longer this time around, being accurate with the ball, challenging their defence more and going deeper into phases. That’s what we’ve got to get right this week.”
Rhona Lloyd will miss the Italy game – thanks to N50 Photography
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