Defending champions Scotland started their WXV2 title defence with a 19-0 victory over last year’s runners-up Italy in Cape Town.
Tries from Chloe Rollie, Lana Skeldon and Coreen Grant helped Scotland, who edged out Italy for the title on points difference in 2023, claim a convincing win in soggy conditions at DHL Stadium.
It was still scoreless after 26 minutes when Italy’s Beatrice Rigoni missed a penalty, two minutes before team-mate Aura Muzzo was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on.
That was a double setback for the Italians and Scotland took advantage almost immediately when full-back Rollie put their first points on the scoreboard after latching onto Emma Orr’s pinpoint pass to touch down.
Hooker Skeldon then added a second try on the stroke of half-time, with both scores being converted by Helen Nelson as Scotland went into the break 14-0 ahead.
As the rain became increasingly heavy, Scotland finished things off late on when, after winning a penalty and electing to have a scrum, wing Grant went over for the champions’ third try.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel