The England men’s team might not have lost at home to Scotland for a veritable age (since a 22-12 reverse in 1983 that was followed on BBC1 by The Dukes of Hazzard and Jim’ll Fix It) but their female counterparts have yet to be beaten on English soil by the Scottish women.
That proud record was never seriously in doubt here as England’s World Cup-winning captain, Katy Mclean, had the satisfaction of guiding her side to victory in front of a 7,620 crowd on her home club ground. The Darlington Mowden Park Sharks fly-half failed to get her own name on the scoresheet but had a hand in the bulk of the eight tries for the home side as England bounced back from their shock 11-8 defeat against Ireland a fortnight ago.
England had the niece of a former Scotland lock on the bench. Andy Reed – uncle of the Bristol centre Amber Reed – played in two losing Scottish men’s sides at Twickenham in the 1990s.
The Scottish women have had difficulty getting points on the board against England, let alone wins, south or even north of the border. The last time they managed to trouble the scoreboard in the fixture was in 2009 and it did not exactly bode well that their starting XV on Friday night boasted a combined total of just two international tries.
It took England less than a minute to break through, Abigail Brown feeding the wing Ruth Laybourn for a score in the right corner, but Scotland had their moment of celebration with four minutes on the clock. The referee, Helen O’Reilly, penalised the England pack and Nuala Deans banged over a penalty from 25 metres.
Not that Deans, who works for UK Anti-Doping as logistics and allocations officer, had long to savour the three points. In the sixth minute England had their second try, Tamara Taylor taking a short pass from her Darlington club-mate Mclean and powering through to score from 10 metres out.
Mclean failed to convert either try and, after a spell of tightened defence, Scotland managed to peg the gap to 10-6, Lisa Martin landing a 19th-minute penalty after England were punished for venturing offside.
To the credit of the plucky visitors, England were struggling to gain attacking momentum, let alone exercise their usual stranglehold over the Scots. Indeed, it took England until the half-hour mark to get some daylight on the scoreboard. In a move straight out of the England men’s team manual, Mclean spurned the opportunity of a penalty kick at the posts in favour of a punt into the right corner and a lineout drive that the Scots were unable to resist, Justine Lucas applying the scoring touch. Five minutes later Mclean aimed a penalty in the same corner and Rochelle Clark dived over from another catch and drive, leaving England 20-6 up at the interval.
The one downside for Mclean – a former team-mate of the England men’s prop David Wilson in the Westoe under-11s side – was that she was unable to nail any of her four first-half conversion attempts. She was off target again when Fiona Pocock scored in the right corner nine minutes into the second half and when Laybourn bagged her second try with a dazzling run from deep.
In between times, at the other end Eilidh Sinclair burst through for a try that Martin converted. Then Lydia Sinclair plundered try No7 for England, prompting Mclean to entrust conversion duties to Reed, who duly added the two points. Sadly, Andy Reed’s niece was unable to repeat the feat when the elusive Laybourn completed her hat-trick in the dying stages.
