Fully five months have gone by since Scotland won their last two games of the Six Nations Championship at what is now called Hive Stadium. But, as they prepare to return to the Edinburgh venue tomorrow for a friendly against Spain, the squad believe that those victories can remain an inspiration.
The 29-21 result against Italy and the 36-10 win over Ireland that followed six days later brought a long losing run to a dramatic and overdue end. Previously the Scots had lost games that were there for the taking, but against the Italians in particular they showed they had learned to win in adversity.
“We’ve got a bit of a winning streak now and we want to keep building on that,” vice-captain Helen Nelson said yesterday. “You remember those turning points in games and how hard we had to work to get the win.”
Today’s two teams have developed a close rivalry in recent seasons, beginning in 2016 when Spain denied Scotland a place at the following year’s Rugby World Cup by winning a two-legged play-off. The tables were effectively turned five years later when Scotland won narrowly on the way to going through to the finals for the first time in a dozen years.
Both teams will compete in next month’s WXV tournament - Scotland in the second tier, Spain in the third - so there are no such high stakes involved in this match. It is the Scots’ only Test ahead of the new competition in South Africa, but Nelson is convinced it will be enough.
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“You don’t want to play lots of physical games before getting on the plane,” she said. “I don’t think the squad is feeling frustrated that we’ve only got the one Test match - I think we’re feeling excited and then we can start looking forward to South Africa. We’ve had behind-closed-doors hit-outs against Ireland and Wales as well, which have been really beneficial.
“It’s always been a good battle with Spain, and we’ve probably had the upper hand the last couple of times. But we’ve not focused too much on them, to be fair. We’ve had the last six weeks together and we’re seeing this as a good reference point for us: pre-season has felt good, but how do we compare to previous games?”
The first of Scotland’s three matches at WXV2 is on 13 October, when they take on the hosts. They then play the USA on the 20th and Japan on the 27th.
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