women
international women
Scotland Captain Rachel Malcolm wants her side to use the energy building around Saturday’s quadruple header in Sydney to their advantage and come out and put in a performance they can be proud of.
The WXV Global Series a clash between the Wallaroos and the Scots will kick things off at the Accor Stadium, followed by the men’s sevens between Australia and Fiji, the women’s match of the week between Australia and New Zealand and then the Wallabies vs All black people in the second Bledisloe Cup Test in 2026.
So far this year Scotland have played in front of their own record 30,498 crowd at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield when the Red Roses came calling during the Guinness Women’s Six Nations and then in front of 31,294 at the Aviva Stadium vs Ireland later in the same tournament.
But this coming weekend could be a different level in terms of everything happening at the Accor Stadium down under, and back row Malcolm wants her charges to embrace that and channel it into a good show.
“What’s really cool about the women’s game today is that we get the chance to play in these big games and we’re all looking forward to that opportunity, 100 percent,” the 35-year-old said.
“I think it’s really exciting for us to be part of the foursome and I think it’s brilliant that Australia has been able to sort it out in terms of growing the game in general, growing the women’s game and getting more eyes on the women’s game.
“There are two things: firstly, we have to fully absorb and enjoy everything that is going to happen around the game that day and use that to energize ourselves for the game, but secondly, we cannot be overshadowed by that excitement.
“First of all, we have to pay attention to what is at stake, and my job as captain is to keep the train on the tracks in that sense and to be focused on performance.
“I have no doubt we’ll be fine, whatever happens, we want to come out and perform.”
After defeats to Canada, New Zealand and Australia last month in Edinburgh, Scotland’s WXV Global Series campaign concludes with Saturday’s game, followed by another meeting with the Wallaroos in Canberra on October 23.
While losses against number three in the world and two in the world Canada and New Zealand were expected, the loss to Australia at the Hive Stadium on Saturday 26 September was a real blow, especially after Scotland were 10-5 up at half-time before losing 30-10.
It means the Scots have now lost seven Tests in a row in all competitions and have dropped to ninth in the world rankings, with Australia seventh.
And, ahead of the next game, the second-half collapse against the Wallaroos in the final time-out is still on the mind.
“I’ve been part of this team for a very long time and I’ve been a part of games like this that ended in a similar result when things got away from us,” explained Malcolm.
“But I’ve never been as frustrated at the end of a game as I was in this one because I think the end result was probably fair.
“And I think it was fair based on how we performed in that second half.
“As players we didn’t do a good enough job in that second half and the real frustration is that we know we had it in us to go on and win.”
“In the first half I felt like we were in control and in the driver’s seat, but that changed and there were some really important lessons from the game for a fairly inexperienced group about taking advantage of momentum when you have it.
“Taking advantage of opportunities when you have the wind is a big thing. The conditions changed in the second half and probably got a bit worse in terms of rain and we left ourselves with a mountain to climb.”
“It’s definitely one that got away and I’m excited that we now have two more opportunities to right those mistakes against the same opponents.
“I think it will be a steeper challenge away to the Wallaroos, but I’m confident in the next two games that if we play how we know we can give ourselves a realistic chance of victory.
“We believe in this group, we just have to show that over 80 minutes and Sydney are the first to give it a big chance.
“Our athletics team prepared us very well before we went to Australia and now we are ready for the next big game.”
