It was a day all about fives for Scotland’s women’s scrum-half Caity Mattinson on Saturday as she played her first game after five months out, received high fives from her team mates at full-time and then spoke to the press about the rise of the country to five in the world.
And the former England cap believes the squad is “physically in the best shape” they ever have been and, as a result, are feeling fit and ready to try and defend their WXV 2 title after the warm up win over Fiji.
The Fijians came hard in the Vodafone Series match at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh, but this Scotland team are no pushovers anymore and they pulled away in the second half, eventually scoring nine tries overall to triumph 59-15.
This was Scotland’s 10th win in 13 Test matches stretching back to last April and their move up to a record high fifth in the world rankings was rubber stamped on Monday such has been their upturn in fortunes.
To put things into context, before this run began Scotland had lost 12 Tests on the bounce between early 2022 and that point while, in general terms for comparison, between March 2017 and April 2023 Scotland won 10 and drew 1 out of 41 Tests.
The recent run of 10 wins in 13 included three victories at the WXV 2 event in South Africa this time last year to lift the silverware and they now head back to Cape Town on Thursday.
“We are feeling good ahead of the trip, I think we are physically in the best shape we have ever been in as a squad,” Mattinson, 28, said.
“We’ll find out the answer to that at the end of three tough WXV 2 matches and see how we are feeling heading into the third game I guess, but I certainly think we are all feeling physically prepared and we are excited about heading to South Africa for the tournament.
“We are really building an identity around the intent to play quickly and everyone has been challenged physically to do that.
“I genuinely believe we will be at our most successful as a squad when there is competition for every spot and there is that just now, everyone has to work so hard to earn and then keep a starting journey and that is helping to keep standards very high.”
Scotland will certainly face tougher tests in Cape Town versus Italy (September 28), Japan (October 5) and Australia (October 12) than they have done in the last two weeks versus Wales [40-14] and Fiji, but these wins will certainly have boosted confidence.
And Mattinson’s confidence itself was boosted at the weekend as she played her first match in five months following a tricky injury.
The former England cap, who was born in Inverness and switched allegiances in 2022, has spoken for the first time about the neck injury that she suffered away to Ireland at the end of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations.
“I had a ligament injury at the back of my neck as a result of the collision in the Ireland game and it was a pretty frustrating rehab period to be honest,” the 24-capper, who joined Ealing Trailfinders this summer, explained.
“We would think it was fine and then I would have nervy symptoms flaring up in my hands and we had to make sure that everything was alright because the issue was my neck and that is more important than just rugby.
“More than anything it was all about making sure that the medics were confident and I had to make sure that I was confident that if I got hit again it was not going to cause me any big problems.
“I’d say it has been one of my toughest challenges mentally in terms of injury in my career to date just because of the nature of it.
“Being on a spinal board for seven hours after it happened probably added to that [anxiety] in terms of getting back too, but I have been very well looked after and I didn’t think about it at all in the week leading up to this most recent game and I was excited to get back out there against Fiji.
“As a first game back from injury it was a good test for me as I am not going to come up against many players as big as some of the Fijians.
“It was good to build my confidence up and the team’s confidence up by defending against players like that.”
Scotland women’s squad for WXV 2 (uncapped in bold)
Forwards
Leah Bartlett (Leicester Tigers)
Christine Belisle (Loughborough Lightning)
Sarah Bonar (Harlequins)
Elliann Clarke (Bristol Bears)
Lisa Cockburn (Gloucester Hartpury)
Eva Donaldson (Leicester Tigers)
Evie Gallagher (Bristol Bears)
Jade Konkel (Harlequins)
Rachel Malcolm (Loughborough Lightning)
Elis Martin (Loughborough Lightning)
Fiona McIntosh (Saracens)
Rachel McLachlan (Montpellier)
Louise McMillan (Saracens)
Lana Skeldon (Bristol Bears)
Aila Ronald (University of Edinburgh)
Alex Stewart (Corstorphine Cougars)
Anne Young (Loughborough Lightning)
Backs
Leia Brebner-Holden (Gloucester-Hartpury/Cheltenham Tigers)
Coreen Grant (Saracens)
Caity Mattinson (Ealing Trailfinders)
Mairi McDonald (Exeter Chiefs)
Francesca McGhie (Leicester Tigers)
Rhona Lloyd (GB 7s/ Stade Bordelais)
Helen Nelson (Loughborough Lightning)
Emma Orr (Bristol Bears)
Rachel Philipps (Sale Sharks)
Lisa Thomson (GB 7s/Ealing Trailfinders)
Chloe Rollie (Ealing Trailfinders)
Lucia Scott (Hartpury University/Gloucester Hartpury)
Meryl Smith (Bristol Bears)
Caity Mattinson is picture post-Fiji match thanks to Mark Brown
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