“The players are hurting, we need to work harder to turn things around”

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Scotland hooker Lana Skeldon has admitted that the playing squad need to work harder, find an extra 10 percent and be more composed when the Women’s Six Nations campaign resumes later this month.

The Scots head to Lille on February 23 to face France in round three having lost out already to Italy and Ireland in rounds one and two.

Last Friday night the team pulled things back to 5-5 against Ireland midway through the second half at Scotstoun, but then the visitors dominated to come out on top 22-5 with a bonus point.

It means that Scotland have lost their last three Six Nations matches since winning in Dublin last year and have lost their last six Test matches in total.

Skeldon, 25, has been one of the on form players despite the defeats and it is clear that the players are hurting right now.

After the Ireland loss she said: “Even though we were down 10-5 at half-time we had started to put the foot on the pedal after it had taken us a long time to get going.

“At half-time we were starting to push them and gaps were starting tom appear in their defence, but when we came out for the second half it was almost as if we were restarting, trying to go again, but just missing ‘it’ and not quite hitting ‘it’ and doing what we had to.

“At points there is a lack of composure, we know exactly what we want to do and what we are trying to do, but I just think at points our decision making is off and we are not working hard enough to turn things around.

“We are lacking 10 percent, we have all got it in us and we do it in training, but we struggle to put it out there on the pitch and it is up to us as players to get that changed.

“We are all hurting at the moment.

“France next up will be a test, but last year at Scotstoun we put them under severe pressure in the first half and were 12-3 down at the break before they won [26-3] so we need to take hear from that.”

https://twitter.com/Womens6Nations/status/1094216239063490566

Head coach Shade Munro said after Friday’s defeat: “It wasn’t good enough. The learnings we got from the Italy game we just didn’t put into place and we just didn’t start well.

“We never seemed to get at them, for large periods we defended quite well, but then we switched off after 10 or 11 phases and let them score.

“We have got to stop hoping the opposition won’t score, we have to stop them. It is a team mindset, it is not individuals because someone like Lana, for example, lays it on the line every time she plays.

“As a team they need to learn to be a lot more relentless in what they do.

“We need to start taking games by the scruff of the neck. Ireland played okay, they deserved to win, but we didn’t put into practice the things that we talked about.

“Quite often after game I’ll be quite positive and see the progress being made, but the team let themselves down a bit in this Ireland game and I hate that because they are much better than that.”

Thanks to Rugby People for the photo of Lana Skeldon

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