Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm does not think that the squad “hit anywhere near our potential" as they finished runners-up to Australia at WXV 2, adding that it will give them “fuel” heading into a World Cup year in 2025.
The Scots were looking to defend the title they won in Cape Town last year and went into the final match in South Africa with the Australians with that opportunity still within their grasp.
However, a slow start from them allowed Australia to build up a 21-0 lead after 22 minutes. After that a version of the ‘real’ Scotland that had won 12 of their last 15 Tests before this one showed up and, by the 68th minute, they actually led 22-21.
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With Emma Orr already having been sent off, Francesca McGhie was then yellow carded and Australia scored 10 more points in the last seven minutes versus the 13 players of Scotland to win 31-22, stay unbeaten and lift the silverware.
Earlier in the event, Scotland beat Italy 19-0 and Japan 19-13, but they set high standards now and back-row Malcolm believes there is “more in” this group.
“There are positives in there from this match and the tournament as a whole, but, ultimately, I don’t think we have hit anywhere near our potential during the competition and that is ultimately why we finished second.
There is a lot more in us which we have a number of months to find [before the Rugby World Cup in England next August and September which they have now officially qualified for] and I have no doubt we will.
“We have built foundations heading into the World Cup year and it is about learning now. We have time to let this one hurt and use it as fuel to help us really hit the ground running in 2025 and come back stronger heading into the Six Nations and then that World Cup.
“It is important to feel the emotions from a defeat like this and a tournament like this.
“I am not the type of captain to tell my team to pick themselves up straight away after a loss like this, particularly at the end of a tournament, and it is important that we reflect on what has gone well and what hasn’t gone so well and come back ready to ‘go again’.”
In terms of the match itself at the Athlone Sports Stadium, Malcolm believes that, overall, Australia deserved to win.
“I think it was a fair result,” she stated.
“Australia took the chances that they created and we probably got on the wrong side of the referee which probably didn’t help our cause.
“A lot of our pressure got turned over due to ill-discipline and that was frustrating, but it was a proper Test match out there and both sides had to play for 80 plus minutes.
“I think the heart that we showed to take the game up to the last minute after being 21-0 down was great, but it is not where we want to be, we want to be in games a bit more than that and not chasing them.”
Malcolm mentioned getting on the wrong side of the referee and head coach Bryan Easson did not seem too enamoured with some decisions by whistler Clara Munarini of Italy and her teamof officials.
“I think there were quite a lot of things out there that we are not overly happy with, but we will speak to World Rugby about that,” he explained.
“Emma Orr got done [red carded] for a head-on-head [collision] which was right, but there were three or four [incidents] out there which were missed.
“That is not the reason why we didn’t come out on the right side of the score, but I’ll certainly be looking back on a few things.
“There were also too many times when we got on the wrong side of refereeing decisions around the breakdown and, again, I’ll need to look at that.”
After Scotland had recovered from their disastrous start, when they bagged their fourth try to go a point ahead, Easson felt there was only one side going to go on and win it.
“We were in great shape, but then things changed.
“I do think this is a really exciting group of players and I do feel, like Rachel, that there is more in this group.
“We have probably pushed on so much in the last 18 months or so that we havenow set our bar quite high, but it is clear that we haven’t hit the heights we wanted to in this competition.
“We have made strides in certain areas and there are others we still need to work on, but we are moving in the right direction and we now have plenty to be getting on with heading into a World Cup year.”
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