Lana Skeldon says retaining WXV title would be a 'career highlight'

Scotland had to hold their nerve in a gutsy contest with Japan, eventually grinding out a 19-13 win, and are looking to continue a five-match winning streak to back up their fighting talk. 

Whether they have met their match in an Australian side who are also two from two will be a case settled in their winner-takes-all showdown in Cape Town, but Skeldon is excited by the prospect. 

“I never ever thought I’d be in a position to win a trophy back-to-back so it’s a bit surreal to me, but it’s something that would just be incredible. It would be one of the highlights of my career,” she said.

“This squad has achieved a lot of firsts and this would be another one for us. We’re really passionate and incredibly motivated to get our hands on that trophy again.”

Lana Skeldon prepares to make a tackle in the win over Japan (Image: World Rugby) Revenge is also among Scotland's motivation against the Wallaroos, who ran out 14-12 winners when the sides last met at the World Cup two years ago.

“The World Cup game was really tough. It’s one we’d obviously set our sights on to win, as you do with every game, so to lose by such a fine margin was difficult to take,” she said.

“But I think we’re in a much better place now than we were back then. We’ve developed our squad and our depth so it’ll be really interesting to see how that goes against them this time out.”

Despite the fact Scotland have never beaten Australia in their three previous encounters since 1998, the chance to once again assert their dominance on the world stage is fuelling their fight for glory. 

“It’s a different type of pressure this time, but moments like this are 100% what motivate us,” Skeldon said. “It spurs you to be a better player and a better team as well. 

“We want to front up on these big occasions and show that we can deal with the pressure. We’re used to being underdogs but obviously because we won this last year, we’re here to win it again. 

“Two years, two finals. We’ve come a long way but I think we’ve just got to keep growing. It’s essentially a cup final and that’s why we play the game, for these big moments, so we want to get stuck in.”

Scotland are aiming to win WXV2 for the second year running (Image: World Rugby via Getty Images) Skeldon scored off the back of a lineout maul last time out against Australia while she also crossed earlier in this competition during Scotland’s 19-0 win over Italy.

“I’d love to score another try, as many as I can not even just one, but I think one of our strengths is we spend a lot of time focusing on ourselves,” she said. “We know what we want to go out there and do. 

“We obviously look at other teams to see what they’re going to bring to the table but we just want to focus on us and enjoy it, because we play our best rugby when we’re enjoying it. 

“We also need to stay together. Throughout the game there will be moments where someone is having a panic and it will be about how we pick each other up, stick together and get through those times. 

“We are all individual players and we all have individual bits of brilliance, but how we bring that together as a group will be how we get the result that we’re after.”