Heartbreak for Scotland Women as they lose opening World Cup match to Wales in agonising circumstances

Wales celebrate their last-ditch Pool A win over Scotland at the World Cup.

A penalty in the sixth minute of stoppage time by Keira Bevan gave the Welsh victory and left the Scots broken at the full-time whistle.

Scotland looked to have secured a draw on 79 minutes when Megan Gaffney levelled the scores at 15-15 with a try, but Wales – despite being down to 14 players – forced an offside infringement during a 20-plus phase attack after the restart and landed the penalty kick to ensure victory.

Scotland will rue five missed kicks by Helen Nelson and the referee’s reluctance to sin-bin Wales players for a high crime count until later into the match.

Wales started much the better team and scored the opening try on six minutes through Alisha Butchers, converted by Elinor Snowsill. The stand-off then added a penalty on ten minutes to hand the Welsh an early 10-0 lead.

Scotland responded with a try of their own on 28 minutes when Lana Skelton crossed on the back of a driving maul, but Wales ended the half in the ascendency when Kayleigh Powell touched down on 34 minutes.

Nelson spurned eight points from the boot during the first half but after the interval, Scotland showed heart to fight back, with Gaffney scoring two unconverted tries to haul them level, the first on 67 minutes and then the second on 79 minutes as Wales were punished for continual indiscipline, with Cara Hope and Jasmine Joyce sinbinned.

However, Bryan Easson’s team coughed up a penalty of their own after the hooter had sounded and Bevan made no mistake with her penalty to spark wild celebrations for the team in red.

Scotland now face an uphill challenge to finish in the top three in Pool A and progress to knock-out stages, with their next two matches against Australia on Saturday, October 15 and against New Zealand on Saturday, October 22.

Earlier in the day, New Zealand defeated Australia 41-17 to top the group.