Three Borderers named in Scottish squad for Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifiers

Jedburgh’s Chloe Rollie and Hawick’s Lisa Thomson and Lana Skeldon are among 28 players pick ed by head coach Bryan Easson for the competition.

They’ve been training in Edinburgh this week prior to flying out to Italy for that round-robin tournament.

Easson’s squad is little changed from the one that contested the 2021 Women's Six Nations in April, with Rollie, Thomson and Skeldon having featured then too.

Former Jedburgh Grammar School pupil Rollie, 26, has been capped 40 times to date, with ex-Hawick High students Thomson, 24, and Skeldon, 27, having picked up 35 and 43 caps respectively.

Thomson was also selected as a reserve for Team GB’s rugby sevens side at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Easson, 47, said: “Squad selection has been difficult as the players have really stepped up to the mark in our recent training camps.

“As a result, we’ve seen a lot of competition for places, which has been real positive from a coaching perspective.

“In this round-robin tournament, every game counts, and we know that we will have to hit the ground running in the first game to keep our qualification chances in sight.

“We are very familiar with our opponents and we know that they will each present very different game plans, but we firmly believe we have the ability to adapt to each challenge that may arise.”

Following its postponement last year, Rugby World Cup 2021’s European qualifying tournament will take place next week and the week after in Parma’s Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, home of Zebre Rugby Club.

Scotland will compete against Spain, Ireland and hosts Italy in a round-robin format.

The top team will book a spot in group B at the world cup, with the runner-up will getting another chance in a final qualification tournament.

A full match schedule for the qualifiers in Italy will be announced by World Rugby soon.

Scotland will be hoping to bounce back from an unsuccessful Six Nations campaign, having lost both their pool games, 52-10 to England and 41-20 to Italy, and failed to progress in the competition.

Skeldon was among the Scots’ scorers in the latter game, that being one of two tries she’s notched up for her country since first being capped in 2011.

Rollie has scored 11 since making her international debut in 2015 and Thomson six since her first Scottish call-up in 2016.

Thomson was also picked as one of three models for the launch of Scotland’s new kits alongside James Lang and Hawick’s Darcy Graham.

“We all take a huge amount of pride each time we represent our country and the new kits for this season look amazing,” she said.

“I’m impressed with the use of recycled materials by Macron, and the attention to detail in the design is really good.”