After getting the better of hosts South Africa in last week’s opening match of the WXV2 tournament, Scotland are set to face an equally physical but more demanding all-round challenge when they take on the United States in Cape Town.
Seventh in the world rankings compared to the Scots’ ninth, the US are a more balanced side than the forward-dominated South Africans. They also won 21-17 at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium in a friendly last year.
Scotland winger Rhona Lloyd knows her team were below their best in their 31-17 victory against the tournament hosts last Friday. But she is confident that they can learn from that performance and up their game this afternoon.
“We were really happy to get the win last week, but there were big bits of our performance that could have been a lot better, so we definitely want to build on that tomorrow,” she said of a match in which four of the winners’ five tries came from lineout mauls. “That was a really forward-dominated game, but we definitely felt we missed some opportunities out wide and we’ll be looking to exploit them against the USA.”
The States outlasted Scotland in that August 22 friendly, hitting back from a 17-16 half-time deficit to secure a narrow win. But the bulk of the Scots squad has now been on professional contracts for nearly a year, and results have improved as a result - they have now won their last four matches.
A lot of other things have changed, too, encouraging Lloyd to be in an optimistic mood about today’s rematch. “We were really frustrated with our performance in that second half,” she added. “We’ve learned from that.
“Their team has changed quite significantly since then and they’ve got new coaching staff in - and there are so many new faces in our squad too. So I think this will be a very different game.”
