20th Scotland try for Hawick’s Lana Skeldon not enough to avert back-to-back losses to Italy for women’s national rugby team
A 20th try in 80 international appearances for Hawick’s Lana Skeldon wasn’t enough to avert back-to-back losses to Italy for Scotland’s women’s rugby team last Friday.
Bristol Bears hooker Skeldon’s 30th-minute try was one of five for head coach Bryan Easson’s visitors in Viadana, with No 8 Evie Gallagher at the double, fly-half Helen Nelson and replacement No 2 Elis Martin, also touching down and Nelson kicking two conversions.
A hat-trick for Alyssa D’Inca and further scores from Vittoria Vecchini, Aura Muzzo and Beatrice Rigoni, two of them converted by Michela Sillari, saw the Italians go one better with their try count for a 34-29 summer test victory, however, following on from a 25-17 Women’s Six Nations win against the Scots in Edinburgh in April.
That’s one of two warm-ups for Easson’s side ahead of this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England in August and September, the other being away to Ireland this coming Saturday in Cork, with kick-off at 2pm.
Skeldon, 31, played for all but the last quarter of an hour of Friday’s defeat before making way for Martin.
She was one of three Borderers in the Scottish match-day squad alongside inside-centre Lisa Thomson and replacement left-winger Chloe Rollie.
Hawick’s Thomson, 27, was on for 72 minutes before being replaced by Hannah Ramsay and Jedburgh’s Rollie, 30, was brought on as a 48th-minute replacement for Coreen Grant.
Thomson is now on 70 caps and her former Ealing Trailfinders teammate Rollie, signed by France’s Toulon Provence Mediterranee this summer, is on 76.
Making up the rest of Scotland’s starting XV, skippered by Rachel Malcolm, were Lucia Scott, Rhona Lloyd, Evie Wills, Leia Brebner-Holden, Leah Bartlett, Elliann Clarke, Emma Wassell, Adelle Ferrie and Rachel McLachlan, with Molly Wright, Lisa Cockburn, Eva Donaldson, Alex Stewart and Caity Mattinson also on the bench.
Easson, 51, is hoping his team will learn lessons from Friday’s loss, saying: “We came into this game knowing that there were going to be a lot of learnings for us.
“It was a rusty start for us and we need to be a little bit more clinical in both attack and defence, but we’ve learned some good lessons out of it.”