Scotland head coach Bryan Easson admits it’s a “blow” to be without “mercurial talent” Meryl Smith after he confirmed that she will miss the Women’s Rugby World Cup later this year.
Bristol Bears playmaker Smith, who made her Scotland debut in 2022 and was at the World Cup later that year in New Zealand, has 22 caps to her name but had an operation to deal with a serious ACL injury picked up the WXV 2 event in Australia late last year.
And the 23-year-old, who grew up in the Netherlands and Edinburgh and who played sevens for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, is still recovering.
“She’s not available, she wasn’t available medically,” Easson said after Smith was left out of the 38-strong extended training squad for the big event in England in August and September.
“It’s a blow because she’s such a talent. She could play at 10, she could play at 12, she could play at 15. She’s a bit of a mercurial talent.
“The fact is that she’s got a skill set that we would hope or want others to have as well. She’s got a mind on her and an ability on her that you need within the Scotland women’s team. However, we have others within the squad as well that can cover for her.
“I was really impressed with [uncapped] Hannah Ramsay through the Six Nations period. She is a young 10 coming through who, even just in a year, has grown so much. Evie Wills can play at 10, 12 too.
“There are other players who we have got in there. Meryl is obviously such a talented player that when you lose a player like that it’s always going to hurt, but we’ve got others that are coming in and somebody else has to take that opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Easson has issued updates on the four players who are in the current squad who were previously, or are still, carrying injuries.
“Meg Varley is good enough that we’re rehabbing her here [in Scotland camp], so she’ll be training and Coreen Grant is with us doing rehab and we think she’ll be back probably fully training within a week,” he stated.
“Emma Wassell was with us through the recent Six Nations, but her training was modified all the way through and she didn’t do any contact.
“Her rehab up to that point went really well and that allowed me to name her in the training squad last week and Emma came in on Monday at the start of our first World Cup training camp as one of 38 players who are trying to make the 32 who will go to England later this year.
“And that is the way we have to look at her now – she is a rugby player first and foremost and will be judged as such.
“That doesn’t take anything away from warrior that she was to get through her illness and her rehab – 10 months ago something happened to her that I would hope none of us would ever have to go through – and she has fought and come back with excellent fitness levels.
“But now she is one of the 38, she is not modified, she is training fully and she has a chance like everyone else to put her hat into the ring for the 32.
“And Hollie Cunningham is doing really well.
“She has not joined us this week after her hamstring surgery because when you are rehabbing a hamstring travelling back and forth is not ideal, but she has been working hard with her club Bristol Bears.
“Hollie will rejoin us in the next few weeks and she will have sights on being fit in time for the first World Cup warm-up game that we have away to Italy towards the end of July.”
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Meryl Smith is pictured
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