Jenny Maxwell will get a chance to stake her claim for the Scotland number nine jersey going forward when she starts in the final Women’s Six Nations match against England at Twickenham on Saturday (kick-off 7.30pm, live on BBC ALBA).
The 26-year-old Loughborough Lightning player has been in and around the national team squad for four years now, but only five of her 23 caps to date have been starts.
She is battling it out with fellow scrum-halves Mhairi Grieve and Sarah Law to be first choice in the key position – and a big game this weekend could go a long way to helping her in that aim.
It will a tough outing for Scotland with England going for the Grand Slam, but head coach Shade Munro said: “Jenny has done well when she has come off the bench for us of late and she has added real impetus to our attack.
“She adds real pace to our game and rather than wait until she comes off the bench to do that we thought we would give her a start.
“We have three nines obviously so it was a difficult decision to make, but she deserves this opportunity.
“It was tough [to raise the players’ spirits after a last gasp defeat against Wales last Friday] certainly straight after the game, but they have been upbeat this week and are excited to play England at Twickenham.
“It’ll be a tough game, but there has not been a lull in the camp. We have had our ups and downs in this tournament and we will have to find another level against a team as good as England.
“I think when you are playing against a team like England it is about what you do and there are little things that we have to sort out.
“We need to try and stop their attacking lineout drives, put in good defensive sets and score if we can, so there are small victories that we can make in this game.
“We put in a good performance defensively against Wales and it is an area that we have stepped up in.
“We hope to be combative, bring an intensity and be organised. England put you under pressure in every facet of the game, so we have to be clear in what we want to do.”
With Rachel Malcolm out with a concussion, Sarah Bonar moves to the back-row with Nicola Howat in the second-row.
Back-row Panashe Muzambe of Watsonians could make a debut off the bench.
Scotland
15 Chloe Rollie
14 Rhona Lloyd
13 Hannah Smith
12 Lisa Thomson (C)
11 Annabel Sergeant
10 Helen Nelson
9 Jenny Maxwell
1 Megan Kennedy
2 Lana Skeldon
3 Mairi Forsyth
4 Emma Wassell
5 Nicola Howat
6 Sarah Bonar
7 Rachel McLachlan
8 Jade Konkel
Substitutes:
16 Jodie Rettie
17 Lisa Cockburn
18 Katie Dougan
19 Panashe Muzambe
20 Deborah McCormack
21 Mhairi Grieve
22 Lisa Martin
23 Abi Evans
Thanks to Rugby People for the main photo
BBC ALBA is the Gaelic language television service and it will be broadcasting all of Scotland’s games at the 2019 Women’s Six Nations.
Launched in September 2008 as a collaboration between the BBC and MG ALBA, BBC ALBA was the first partnership television service to operate under a BBC licence.
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