Scotland Women were just seven minutes away from successfully defending their WXV2 title before late drama saw Australia snatch the trophy.

Here is an analysis of some key stats from another significant tournament in the development of women's Test rugby.

Match stats

Passes to carries ratio

Judged by their ratio of passes to carries, the indications are that Scotland currently play more directly than their opponents.

  • Scotland – 1.32 passes per carry
  • Opponents – 1.52 passes per carry

By comparison, Scotland men play a relatively open style by Test standards but only average 1.28 passes per carry during the Townsend era.

At the top end of the women’s game, this ratio tends to be higher than for the men’s game. 

Evie Gallagher carries for Scotland against Wales during the Vodafone SeriesEvie Gallagher carries for Scotland against Wales during the Vodafone Series (Image: SNS)

England are number one in the rankings – by some distance – and during their WXV1 fixtures they made 1.72 passes for every carry.

As Scotland move towards targeting how they can compete with the top four nations, opening up their style of play seems likely to be one of their next steps.

Read more:

Having playmakers in the backline like Meryl Smith and Emma Orr continuing to grow will be central to that part of their game.

Set-piece

There were some mixed moments for Scotland’s set-piece during the latest WXV tournament.

Both scrum and lineout provided excellent attacking platforms at times but there were some crucial failures, particularly in the Australian 22 during the part of that game when the Scots were dominating.

  • Scrum success rate: Scotland 79% – 90% Opponents
  • Lineout success rate: Scotland 79% – 78% Opponents

There is a solid base there to work on and the dark blues at least won back as much lineout ball as they lost.

Scotland's lineout endured difficult moments at WXV Scotland's lineout endured difficult moments at WXV (Image: SNS)

Again, if taking those next steps is the priority, the target needs to be at least around the mid-80s for scrums (England’s rate during WXV was 86%) and high 80s, possibly even 90% for the lineout (England – 89%).

Miscellany

  • Scotland had the edge in the ruck speed battle in every one of their three games, peaking in an open matchup against Japan where 82% of ruck ball was cleared in 0-3 seconds. That is an excellent building block for the attack leading into next year’s Six Nations and Rugby World Cup.
  • Given the struggles of the men’s national side at times under kick-offs, Scotland’s 100% success rate at restarts was a welcome outcome.
  • A combination of their kicking game and defensive pressure allowed the Scots to dominate territory in all three of their games, averaging 59%. Possession was edged by their opponents (Scotland – 47%) but only Australia, with a couple of spectacular tries, were really able to use that to expose the Scottish defence from long range.

Player Stats

26 of the 27 players in Scotland’s WXV squad featured for at least 40 minutes during the tournament. Here are the top performers in some key areas.

Top carriers

  1. Meryl Smith – 14.0 carries per 80 minutes
  2. Evie Gallagher – 13.5
  3. Elis Martin – 13.3
  4. Lisa Cockburn – 12.4
  5. Jade Konkel – 10.5

In terms of total carries made, first-choice back rows Evie Gallagher and Rachel Malcolm both contributed 32, with the skipper the only member of the squad to play all 240 minutes across the three fixtures.

Meryl Smith topped the charts for carries Meryl Smith topped the charts for carries (Image: SNS)

Gallagher also made more passes (22) than any other forward, cementing her place as absolutely central to Scotland’s attacking structures.

Outwith the forwards, the massive numbers put up by Meryl Smith (the only back to average double figures for carries) demonstrates how much of the attack coalesces around her when she is on the pitch.

Top tacklers

  1. Jade Konkel – 27.4 tackles per 80 minutes
  2. Elis Martin – 25.0
  3. Evie Gallagher – 20.3
  4. Anne Young – 19.1
  5. Elliann Clarke – 17.0

Jade Konkel's game has altered somewhat over the years with her defensive contributions increasing – and in this tournament outweighing her attacking interventions.

Jade Konkel has added a big defensive effort to her impressive carrying gameJade Konkel has added a big defensive effort to her impressive carrying game (Image: SNS)

Among the top five, Evie Gallagher maintained the best tackle completion percentage at 95.8%, only missing two of the 48 she attempted.

Miscellany

  • Helen Nelson and Lisa Thomson were responsible for 45 of Scotland’s 65 kicks from hand. Caity Mattinson (seven) was the only scrum half to record a kick during the tournament.
  • Evie Gallagher was the only Scot to force a turnover in each of her side’s three games. The five that she won against Italy in the opening fixture were a huge factor in the defensive effort that shut out the Azzurri.
  • Scotland registered more dominant tackles against Australia (14) than they did in the games versus Italy (four) and Japan (seven) combined. This is closer to the kind of level needed to challenge the best sides. Gallagher again led the way with three dominant hits.