Borderers Lana Skeldon and Chloe Rollie edge closer to centuries of caps for Scottish national women’s rugby team
Borderers Lana Skeldon and Chloe Rollie continue to edge closer to hitting centuries of caps for Scotland but couldn’t prevent the national women’s rugby team’s current losing streak being extended to just short of double figures in Australia last Friday.
Hawick’s Skeldon was brought on as a 46th-minute replacement for Aicha Sutcliffe at No 2, joining Jedburgh’s Rollie, on for the whole game at full-back bar a 44th-minute sin-binning, as interim head coach Dave Butcher’s Scots lost out by 38-31 in Canberra despite matching their hosts try for try.
Bristol Bears hooker Skeldon, 33, is now on 92 international appearances and Edinburgh No 15 Rollie is on 91, making them respectively their country’s second and third most-capped players ever, trailing only former Biggar back-rower Donna Kennedy’s tally of 115 caps between 1993 and 2010.
Friday’s defeat was Scotland’s fifth in a row in the new WXV Global Series and ninth all together since their last win, by 24-19 away to Wales in April.
It also extended their wait for a first victory against Australia to seven fixtures since 1998, including their three most recent games, last week’s loss following ones by 56-12 in Sydney the previous Saturday and 30-10 at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium.
Last week’s seven-point losing margin was their second-smallest to date, however, after being edged out 14-12 in New Zealand at 2022’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, a game both Skeldon and Rollie also played in, the former scoring a try, along with fellow Borderer Lisa Thomson.
Their try-scorers this time round were blindside flanker and captain Rachel Malcolm at the double, Sutcliffe, left-winger Katie Buchanan and right-winger Rhona Lloyd, with inside-centre Helen Nelson adding three conversions.
Amelia Whitaker, Maya Stewart, Faitala Moleka, Piper Duck and Siokapesi Palu matched that try count but Samantha Wood’s kicking – five conversions and a penalty – proved to be the difference between the two teams.
Though unable to halt his team’s losing run, Butcher, 56, is happy with the progress they’ve made since he took interim charge following predecessor Sione Fukofuka’s departure in August.
“We’re under no illusion that there’s still a lot of work to do, but if you look at the progression from the last two months to where we are now, this is definitely a start point,” he said.
“Two months ago, we didn’t have a coaching staff, we didn’t have a way of playing, we didn’t have a direction and we were still bringing staff in, and we had to restart everything.
“In terms of the short time we’ve been together, the progression we’ve made has been immense.
“We’re realistic – we’ve still got a lot of work to do and everyone’s behind that work and aligned to doing it, and the hard work starts now to move us towards the Six Nations and make sure that we continue that development.”
As things stand, the Scots’ next scheduled fixture is at home to Ireland at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, April 10, in 2027’s Women’s Six Nations.