The profile and prominence of the Red Roses means that much of the opening weekend focus of the Women’s World Cup will fall on events in Sunderland but it is across in Salford that the fixture that will really kickstart the tournament takes place. Women’s rugby can be short on genuine jeopardy and rivalry but whenever Scotland and Wales meet, neither quality at all seems to be lacking.
There are plenty of friendships across the two camps with most players in both squads plying their trade across the respective borders in Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), yet there has always been a certain hostility to meetings between the pair. The two nations are at similar stages in their professional development and have similar goals at this tournament, a quarter-final place within reach for the victor in this opening game. Three Scottish victories in three meetings in the last 18 months have narrowed the overall record to 20-19 in Wales’s favour, while there are plenty in both squads who remember Keira Bevan’s dramatic 86th minute penalty in New Zealand three years ago that sunk Scotland’s World Cup before it had even really begun.
