Bryan Easson believes next week’s Vodafone Series match against Wales is an ideal way for his side to begin their preparations for WXV in South Africa.
Easson, who this week named his 30-player squad for Scotland’s WXV 2 title defence, believes next week’s opposition have evolved under current head coach Ioan Cunningham.
“Wales challenge you in different ways,” he said of the improving Welsh.
“Traditionally they were that physical, hard-working Welsh team that was always very difficult to play against.
“But they’ve brought in different styles. They’ve got some good rugby players in there like Jas Joyce, Lleucu George, who’s a kicking 10, but they’ve also got an outstanding back row.
“They’re not unlike ourselves in terms of their identity, but they also do give you that physical challenge. I thought it was really important to do that.”
Easson said the challenge of facing Fiji for the first time in a 15s international is the perfect blend before heading to South Africa, where Scotland will meet Italy, Japan and Australia.
“We’re going to play against Japan, so you need to know different styles,” he said, explaining the rationale behind facing Fijiana.
Easson, who picked four uncapped players – fullback Lucia Scott, centre Rachel Philipps, scrum-half Leia Brebner-Holden and hooker Aila Ronald, plans to rotate his squad during the two warm-up matches.
"There will be a few changes between both games.
“Although there’s four new caps in there, the other 26 are pretty experienced.
“And you can change things around and look at different combinations. And it’s not just about the five games: it’s about moving to the World Cup as well.
“We do have that north star of the World Cup, but it’s about how we learn going into it.”
And the Scotland boss said rather than spending the week working on Wales, his charges will continue to focus on their own game.
Easson added: "We’ll look at them in depth as we always do, but we’ll give the players a lot less [about the opposition] than we would normally do.
"It would be maybe a 70-30 split normally - we’ll be a little bit less than that.
“We’ll scratch the surface, because it’s going to be about us, about focusing on what we’ve learned in pre-season and what we’re going to bring to the table for WXV and moving forward.
“We’ve worked really hard on two or three different things - so let’s learn about how we’ve done that.”
The Scotland head coach knows next weekend’s match is the first step in a long road to next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Read more:
- EXCLUSIVE: Evie Gallagher reveals World Cup aim after injury heartache
- Five talking points from Scotland squad for WXV 2 title defence
-
Meryl Smith: Playing for inaugural women's Lions team 'a dream'
He said: "It’s not very often that international rugby is your first game of the season. We did a hit-out last week because some of the girls had not played since the end of May.
“The first 20 minutes will be pretty tough for everybody, just to find your lungs again.
“Our biggest thing in that first game will be are we transferring what we’ve been working on on the training field? It is a year programme.
“We’re not throwing our eggs into the Wales basket, it’s about the whole thing. It’s about building performance, building players, learning about each other, about new coaches, about pressure."
Read the rules here