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.
“They're always competitive,” Scotland wing Francesca McGhie said this week. “Wales are a physical team but we've played them enough to know what we're expecting. They're under a new coach but the Six Nations was a good place for us as well and we're just going to go out and be really competitive. It's going to be a great game.
“This is probably our most competitive game. It's exciting for it to be against Wales, it's always very close and a couple points in it, so we'll just see who comes out on top.”
Any sense of kinship will be put to one side once the white line is crossed but once the game is over, a Scottish squad that have endured a turbulent build-up to this World Cup will be able to count on support from a Welsh unit that have been through their own tough times ahead of the tournament. Reporting from the BBC triggered the revelation from wing Rhona Lloyd that much as half of the 32-player squad named by Bryan Easson are uncertain of their contractual status after this tournament. Disagreements between Scottish Rugby and the players have played out, in part, publicly ahead of the tournament, and clarity on the situation has yet to be fully shed though is expected in the coming weeks.
The exclusion of popular members of the playing group like lock Louise McMillan and prop Christine Belisle earlier in the year was, perhaps, a first indication that all was not so straightforward in Scottish camp. To complicate matters further, Easson is on his way out, too, with this World Cup his last hurrah. It feels like a relatively natural time to move on from a head coach who has developed the side considerably in his five-year tenure, but Easson is well-liked by his players, and the timing of what he described as “sticky” negotiations over his future suited few.
“We've pushed that to the side,” Easson said of all of the noise surrounding his side. “We have been firmly focused on this Rugby World Cup for the last eight weeks. We're not looking beyond this game; we're not looking at anything that's come before. If we take an eye off this game, we could fail.”
In a sign of a sport still dealing with the early problems of professionalism, it was only last year that the Wales players were going through something similar to their Scottish counterparts. In November, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) apologised for its handling of contract negotiations that included the threat of withdrawing the team from the WXV competition and, subsequently, the World Cup if talks over deals did not progress. The WRU denied allegations of sexism – of course it was only a year prior that Wales’s men were threatening a strike mid-Six Nations – but then-captain Hannah Dellavalle (née Jones) admitted she considered her international career amid the situation.
Two men did not survive the saga. Head coach Ioan Cunningham, now in charge of Fiji, resigned a week after the apology; executive director of rugby Nigel Walker lasted a month more before stepping down. In a World Cup year, such uncertainty was far from ideal.
Wales will enter this tournament with real hope, though, despite back-to-back Women’s Six Nations wooden spoons. Their chief reason for optimism might be new head coach Sean Lynn, who has overseen a dynasty at Gloucester-Hartpury in PWR and took over his native nation just two days after securing a third straight English domestic title. Lynn himself would probably admit that there has been a steep learning curve, and plenty to sort within the squad. In public, Lynn has challenged his players to become fitter, with a gruelling preseason hoped to bring rewards at this tournament.
Lynn has also installed back rows Kate Williams and Alex Callender as co-captains to give a new type of leadership to his team. It appeared that a pre-World Cup tour of Australia, arranged before Lynn’s appointment, might have cost Wales the combative Callender but the Harlequin has overcome her ankle injury to make an opening game that is likely to determine which of these two join Pool B favourites Canada in the last eight.
"We're on the right track,” Lynn said. “I set targets after the Six Nations to the players. They went away and have come back in better shape.
"The big emphasis is making sure that we can play with the intensity that I want us to. "We want to be a hard team to beat, we want the opposition to think 'we've got Wales next, that's going to be a massive test for us'.
"We also want to play with passion, play with heart and play with confidence."
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