SHORT of cloning herself, Jade Konkel-Roberts could hardly do more for the Scotland cause. Normally a No 8, the first female player to be given a professional contract by Scottish Rugby has played elsewhere in the back row and at loosehead prop at various stages of her national career, and has now been named in the second row in the team to play Italy tomorrow.
It is not an entirely unfamiliar position for the Harlequins player, and is a move in part brought about by the absence of first-choice locks Sarah Bonar and Emma Wassell, who have missed the entire TikTok Six Nations because of injury. But it is also further proof of Konkel-Roberts’ versatility and her willingness to do anything required for the team.
Scotland coach Bryan Easson, who has now presided over a dozen consecutive defeats in all competitions since his team beat Colombia in a World Cup qualifier at the start of last year, hopes that Konkel-Roberts and her second-row partner Louise McMillan can complement the back row’s efforts and pose some knotty problems for the Italians at the DAM Health Stadium.
“We’d watched Jade passing off her left hand at scrum-half and she said no,” Easson joked. “So I thought we’d maybe just go back to second row.
“No, look, she is a really good rugby player who has played in the second row before. She has played at 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8. The back row that we have excites me, but to have Jade on the pitch as well brings you a little bit more experience, but also another ball-carrier in that back five.
“She gives us something, and I think the blend of the four of them on the pitch was the right thing. I had a really good conversation with her and she didn’t even think twice about it: it was ‘Yes, I can’.
“There are a lot of strengths she has. It means she will be able to carry the ball a lot between the 15-metre channel. I think it suits her strengths, specially for this game, because we know how Italy defend. We know we have to carry quite hard and dent them, so Jade is ideal for that.”
Konkel-Roberts, who made her comeback from injury at No 8 in Sunday’s 55-0 defeat by France, takes over at lock from Lyndsay O'Donnell, who drops out of the squad. Rachel McLachlan is promoted to the starting line-up and will play at openside, while Evie Gallagher switches from openside to No 8.
In other changes from that loss in Vannes, Mairi McDonald starts at scrum-half instead of Caity Mattinson and Meryl Smith is at centre in place of the injured Emma Orr, with Lisa Thomson switching from 12 to 13. Fran McGhie, who was also injured against the French, has recovered and retains the No 14 jersey, while Coreen Grant - an early replacement for McGhie last week - starts on the right.
“It’s always difficult when you’ve started and then are put on the bench,” Easson said of his original selection for the France game. “Coreen was disappointed. We’d looked at a couple of things, and I thought when she came on she looked like she had picked up on the little things we had discussed about her game. I thought she really performed well in attack and in defence - her work rate has been excellent.”
Stand-off Helen Nelson will be winning her 50th cap and will have a crucial role to play as the home team try to impose their game plan on opponents who revel in unstructured play. Scotland earned a losing bonus point in Parma in last year’s tournament, but they will need to play with more self-belief if they are to go that extra step and turn a narrow defeat into a victory against opponents who only lost by ten points to the French.
Scotland (v Italy at the DAM Health Stadium, tomorrow [Saturday] 4.45pm): C Rollie; C Grant, L Thomson, M Smith, F McGhie; H Nelson, M McDonald; L Bartlett, L Skeldon, C Belisle, J Konkel-Roberts, L McMillan, R Malcolm (captain), R McLachlan, E Gallagher. Substitutes: J Rettie, A Young, E Clarke, E Donaldson, E Sinclair, C Mattinson, B Blacklock, E Musgrove.
