13th Scotland try for Borderer Lisa Thomson not enough to avert 27th defeat on bounce against England

That latest win, by 59-7 at Leicester’s Welford Road Stadium in front of a crowd of 15,530, leaves head coach Bryan Easson’s Scots second from bottom of the championship table, on four points from as many matches.

England, on 20 points after four rounds, are one point clear of France at the top of the leaderboard.

Thomson’s 57th-minute try was converted by fly-half and captain Helen Nelson as the visitors fought back from going in at half-time 42-0 behind.

That was inside-centre Thomson’s 68th appearance for Scotland, 65 of them starts, since 2016.

The 27-year-old was one of three Borderers fielded by Easson, with hooker Lana Skeldon, also of Hawick, accompanying her for the first 54 minutes before making way for Elis Martin and Jedburgh’s Chloe Rollie, yellow-carded three minutes from full-time for a deliberate knock-on, playing the whole game, like Thomson.

Skeldon, 31, is now on 78 caps and full-back Rollie, 29, is on 74.

All three have been ever-presents thus far this tournament, featuring in Easson’s starting XV for their opening 24-21 win hosting Wales on Saturday, March 22, at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium; a 38-15 defeat away to France in La Rochelle a week later; and a 25-17 loss hosting Italy on Sunday, April 13, as well as south of the border at the weekend.

England’s tries were scored by Claudia MacDonald and Abby Dow at the double, Kelsey Clifford, Marlie Packer, Zoe Aldcroft, Abbie Ward and Lark Atkin-Davies, with Holly Aitchison adding seven conversions.

The Scots’ last game of 2025’s championship is at home to third-placed Ireland this coming Saturday, with kick-off at the Hive at 12.15pm, and Nelson, 30, is hoping to see her side bow out with a win, telling BBC Sport: “We’ve always had really close battles with Ireland over the years.

“They’ve had a good tournament but we’re going to take a lot of confidence from that second half and try to build some momentum and take that into next week.”