Interim Scotland women’s head coach Dave Butcher admits he, his fellow coaches and the leaders in the squad are going to have to “really wrestle with” the mindset of the team and how to improve it after a 56-12 WXV Global Series defeat to Australia.
The eight tries to two loss at the Accor Stadium in Sydney on Saturday was Scotland’s eighth Test reverse on the spin and it was one way traffic for large parts of the 80 minutes.
As in the recent home loss to the same opponents, ill-discipline played a factor in the defeat as did a lack of physicality at key times.
“For me, it’s a mindset thing that myself, the coaches and the leadership group are going to have to look into and really wrestle with over the next few days to see how we get the team to not shy away from that physicality when it gets really tough out there,” Butcher, who has been in charge for the last four defeats, said.
“I think it’s recognition around when you need to absorb pressure, how do you wrestle momentum back?
“It’s about sticking to what you’re doing, it’s not about being under pressure so then you back off in terms of line speed in defence or you get spooked by someone running at the defence.
“Halfway through that first half, they increased their levels of physicality and we didn’t.
“I feel that that’s where they got on top of us both in attack and defence.
“The emotion for myself is a little bit raw, but we’ll look at things with the leadership group and decide the best way to move forward.
“We’ll recognise what we did well and then talk about the things that happened when the game got away from us.”
Scotland, who suffered two yellow cards later in proceedings, took the lead early on through Katie Buchanan’s unconverted try before five converted scores put Australia 35-5 up at half-time and they never looked back.
The visitors’ try in the second half came from captain Rachel Malcolm, converted by Helen Nelson.
Scotland must dust themselves down quickly after this as they play their final Test of 2026 against the Wallaroos in Canberra on Friday.
- England’s 41-match unbeaten streak came to an end in Toronto when Canada defeated them 24-21 in the WXV Global Series.
- The Scotland women’s rugby league team beat the Netherlands 54-0 away.
Action from the Accor Stadium is pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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