A fighting second-half performance from Scotland in defeat to England bodes well for the rest of the Women’s Six Nations, according to fly-half Helen Nelson.
Scotland trailed 33-3 at the break as the reigning champions flew out of the blocks in Doncaster but a resilient display from the visitors after the interval meant they only lost the second half 19-7, for a 52-10 final scoreline.
Furthermore, two of England’s three second-half tries came after Scotland were reduced to 14 players on 64 minutes following the sending off of replacement hooker Molly Wright for a high tackle, as the sides looked evenly matched until the numerical disadvantage kicked in.
And while Nelson – who kicked a penalty and converted Hannah Smith’s try – acknowledges that rustiness may have contributed to a first 40 minutes below the standards they were hoping for, the successful half-time adjustments have her feeling positive.
“We were really frustrated after the first half,” she said. “We said we weren’t going to let them come at us but we felt like we hadn’t really fired a shot during the first half.
“Maybe having not played together since October showed a little bit but we’re really happy with that second half.
“There’s a lot of positives to take, so we’ll be back in camp next week and looking forward to our next game.
“We were happy with our defence in the second half but we’ll take a look at how we went. We’ll go away, have a rest week now and start building for Italy from there.”
Following a rest week, Scotland will host Italy in Round 3 before another home game against the team that finishes in the corresponding position in Pool B on Super Saturday Finals Day.
Nelson says that a strong training block since their last competitive game in October had Scotland feeling confident heading into the Round 1 contest but it was only when England duo Poppy Cleall and Lark Davies were sin-binned in the second half that the visitors kicked on.
And now the challenge is to translate the first-half learnings and second-half effort into an all-round display when the Azzurre come to town.
“The second half was a lot better – when England went down to 13 players, we managed to move the ball and reach the edges a bit more, so there’s definitely positives to take from the second half,” added Nelson.
“We were the best-prepared we’ve ever been to play England but we haven’t played together since October, so there is always going to be things that come out in a game that naturally don’t occur in training.
“Maybe that’s the reason our first 40 minutes were a bit of a struggle. In training, we can work on the things we’ve picked up from the first half and when we add those into the positives from the second half, we can be in a really good place for Italy.”
