'A bit of spice' – Scotland & Wales renew rivalry
In a Women's Six Nations in which Scotland are out to prove they are the best of the rest – behind the traditional powerhouses of England and France – there is perhaps no better place to start than a showdown with Wales.These two sides have history, a rivalry built up from numerous close-run encounters in recent times."Really exciting and dramatic for the viewer," Scotland centre Lisa Thomson says of their recent tussles with Wales."You couldn't ask for a better game to kick off the championship," says Scotland forwards coach Fraser Brown. "There's been a bit of spice in these games."Tests between Scotland and Wales over the past five years paint a picture of two very evenly matched teams.Of the past seven meetings between the sides, Wales have won four, Scotland three.Five of those seven matches have been decided by a score or less – two by two points, one by three points, one by five and one by seven.The average score across those matches stands at 23-21 to Scotland, though take out the most recent meeting – a 40-14 Scottish victory in last summer's international friendly – and that flips to 19-17 in Wales' favour for championship matches only.Scotland versus Wales always seems to throw up drama. The Scots won in Cardiff in last year's Six Nations, but only after a last-gasp Welsh conversion slipped wide when it would have snatched the hosts a draw.The agony belonged to Scotland at the 2022 World Cup when Keira Bevan kicked an 84th-minute penalty to clinch an 18-15 Welsh victory in the tournament opener in Whangarei.
'An excellent opportunity to start well'
The teams once again meet in their opening match of this year's World Cup in England, giving Saturday's Six Nations fixture even more significance."There's always niggle in Scotland and Wales games, no matter what sport, whether it's a male or female sport," said former Scotland hooker Brown."There's such close proximity both in geography but also where we are as a team."We have three home games - Wales, Italy and Ireland - three teams who are close to us in the world rankings, who are close to us in ability and who are also progressing and growing with professionalism growing tournament on tournament."It's really healthy for the sport but it's great for us because it means every single time we go into a competition we get to mark ourselves against teams that are right next to us, pushing in terms of professionalism and quality."Wales at home is an excellent opportunity for us to go out and start well."Saturday at Edinburgh's Hive Stadium is a chance to strike a psychological blow before that World Cup opener on 23 August in Salford, but the Scots are focused only on delivering a strong Six Nations showing that would inevitably provide a springboard towards the global tournament this summer."We've got a good run of games, a good order of games," said Thomson, who represented GB Sevens at the Paris Olympics last year."We've got Wales up first and then away to France. We pushed France close last year [in a 15-5 loss in Edinburgh], but we know that France are a different animal at home."As a group we've talked about just focusing on this tournament. We have Wales first up in the Six Nations, Wales first up in the World Cup, but we've done that before."We're just looking forward to a good game on Saturday again."
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