It has been quite a spell for Rachel McLachlan, following up winning her 50th cap for Scotland by inspiring them to a stunning victory over Ireland on her 51st international appearance.
The Scots were up against it for a lot of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations round five match against a strong Irish side at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh on Saturday, but somehow managed to win 26-19 with a bonus point after a last gasp try from winger Francesca McGhie converted by stand-off Helen Nelson.
As well as McGhie’s late score converted by Nelson, earlier the home tries had come from hooker Lana Skeldon, centre Emma Orr and back-row McLachlan with Nelson converting two of those.
When Montpellier’s 26-year-old McLachlan scored in the corner in the 57th minute it was just her second ever try for her country and was set up by an excellent offload by Chloe Rollie.
In the second half Scotland had to deal with yellow cards to winger Rhona Lloyd and Nelson, but did not give up after it went 19-19 after 71 minutes and it paid off.
During the game McLachlan made 62 metres from seven carries in attack, but it was her defensive work that saw her named player of the match as she made a quite remarkable 29 tackles.
That equates to around one every 2.7 minutes throughout the match and, in total, Scotland made 229 tackles to Ireland’s 78 tackles.
“I just feel proud, so proud,” an emotional and exhausted McLachlan said after the game as she collected her player of the match award.
“There’s been some down bits in this campaign for us so wanted to come out and show heart and pride in the jersey at home in this game and I think we did exactly that.
“We pride ourselves on our work ethic and always getting back up and going again and I think we really showed that.
“We came into this game with belief and we continued to believe throughout. We picked ourselves up and just kept going and we knew that we had it in us to score again at the end and it’s a special feeling.”
- In Sunday’s final game of the tournament, Italy scored 34 unanswered points in the second half to beat Wales in Parma 44-12.
Scotland finish fifth, but won two games and finished on nine points like last year when they were fourth.
They would have liked three wins and a third place finish, but the victory over Ireland on Saturday ended things on a high.
Rachel McLachlan is pictured scoring her try versus Ireland – thanks to Six Nations
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