Borders pair Lisa and Chloe on target for Scots

Two of Scotland’s highest profile female rugby payers, both from the Borders, helped the nation’s women to a sixth-place finish at the weekend in the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series Leg 1 in Marcoussis, France.
Scotland had much to be pleased with after their performance in France.Scotland had much to be pleased with after their performance in France.
Scotland had much to be pleased with after their performance in France.

Scotland finished day one with a 24-7 win over Italy – with Chole setting Jenny Maxwell up for a try – and losses to World Rugby core nations Spain (26-19) and Ireland (22-14).

They then headed into day two as one of the top third-placed teams to gain entrance into the Cup quarter-finals.

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A tough match against the strong Russian side, who won 45-0, put Scotland into the fifth place semi-finals.

They put in a strong performance against Belgium, winning 31-7, with two tries from Lisa and one by Chloe, before playing England in the fifth place final.

Hannah Smith dotted down for Scotland’s only try to leave the result 7-35.

Captain Helen Nelson said: “I am really proud of the squad over the weekend. We had a tough pool on day one but put in good performances against Spain and Ireland to get a top eight spot.

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“We had a few player changes in the squad who really stepped up. We learnt a lot and are developing in every tournament. I am excited to see what we can do at the next tournament in Ukraine.”

Head coach Scott Forrest added: “Overall for the weekend, we are pleased with where we finished with sixth place. That essentially was our target. Our performances were up and down over the weekend but we played to where our ranking was.

“The World Series core teams came out strongly, as their results will count towards the rankings for the Olympic qualifiers.

“Overall, we are pleased with where we finished up, but we know we can make improvements. Our results have put us in a really good place looking into the Ukraine Grand Prix leg.”

Scotland Women 7s will play in the second leg of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series in Kharkiv, Ukraine on July 20-21.