The last time Scotland played in South Africa, they beat the host nation twice. Both teams have changed a lot since those two meetings back in 2019, yet Scotland hooker Lana Skeldon, for one, believes the visitors can be inspired by them as they prepare for Friday’s match in Stellenbosch.
Scotland cantered to a 47-5 victory in the first game, and although the South Africans put up a better fight in the rematch, the visitors still came away with a 38-15 win. Those games were friendlies, while this week’s match is the first of three fixtures for each team in the WXV2 tournament. But Skeldon, who played in both, remains convinced of their relevance.
“We had a very positive tour when we came the last time, and there are a lot of us here who were there then, so there are good memories,” she said yesterday. “Hopefully we’re going to continue on the same train we were on last time, because it was pretty awesome.”
Those victories four years ago turned out to be something of a false dawn for the Scots, who struggled to win any games, never mind two in a row, for a long period afterwards. Now, however, they are going into WXV2 on the back of three wins on the bounce - against Italy and Ireland in the Six Nations then Spain in the recent friendly.
“We are definitely in a good place right now,” Skeldon added. “We’ve won our last three games, and we’ve taken small things from each one to hopefully keep progressing and keep our performances on the right trajectory.
“I don’t remember the last time we had so much depth. That’s really important - it makes our training sessions better, it makes us better as a team, and it also allows us to play a certain style of rugby.
“We’re known as a team that has a pretty strong set piece - we have a good driving maul. And we have a pretty lethal backline as well. So we have a good back line of physicality but also speed and agility.
“We’re getting to the point where we’re beginning to show the benefit of all the hard work we’ve done over the last four years. It’s taken a while, but now we’re starting to put in the performances and get the results that we deserve.”
A squad of 30 flew out to South Africa last week. Scotland coach Bryan Easson will name his matchday 23 on Wednesday.
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