Fitness pays as Lucy Millard scores twice in rare win over French

Published on Sunday 7 February 2010 23:21

SCOTLAND Women's captain Lynne Reid heaped praise on her side's fitness after they grabbed a late win against their French counterparts to start the Six Nations campaign in style at Lasswade's Hawthornden ground on Saturday night.

The Scots, with Gary Parker in charge as head coach for the first time, were trailing 8-5 heading into the final minute, but some great work from the forwards helped set up centre Lucy Millard for the winning try as they secured a 10-8 victory.

Back-row Reid, who had a superb game, said: "We are delighted with the win and it pleased me that we stuck to our game plan throughout despite the difficult conditions. We went behind early on, but then fought hard to keep ourselves in the game and when Lucy went over in the corner at the end it was a great feeling.

"We have been working hard on our fitness as a group over the last few months and I think it showed in the match because we were able to keep pressing right until the end. We are not going to get carried away though, and having done some video analysis on Sunday morning we know we have a number of things to work on ahead of the Wales match this coming weekend."

In front of a crowd of nearly 500, France had taken the lead in Midlothian through an early try by prop Stephanie Loyer. It stayed 5-0 until early in the second half when Millard squared things up with a superb try of her own.

A penalty just before the hour mark pushed the visitors ahead 8-5 before Millard's late intervention stole the show and gave Scotland their first home win over France for 12 years and only their fifth in 16 encounters.

Scorers: Scotland Women: Tries: Millard 2. France Women: Try: Loyer. Pen: Bailon.

Scotland Women: C Hawthorn; V Blakebrough, L Millard, E Kerr, V Fitzpatrick; T Griffith, L Dalgliesh; H Lockhart, S-L Walker, B Dickens, L Wheeler, L Moffat, L Reid, S Brown, D Kennedy. Subs: S Quick, R Murphy, L Gray, R Slaven, S Gill, L Douglas, C D'Silva.

France Women : E Poublan; C Ladagnous, S Agricole, L Godiveau, A Lagougine; A Bailon, M-A Yahe; S Loyer, L Salles, N Labbey, C Audebert, C Bouisset, M Andre, S Rabier, M-C Hebel. Subs: C Mansard, C Barthelemy, H Rhamouni, A Vaupre , S Provost , F Horta, C Le Duff.