What Scotland are 'looking to fix' to avoid Six Nations whitewash against Ireland

Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm believes her charges can bounce back from the loss to Italy when they play Ireland in their final TikTok Six Nations match this coming weekend, but only if they sort out their discipline.

The Scots will head to the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast to take on the hosts on ‘Super Saturday’ with the visitors winless and sitting bottom of the table.

With the World Cup in New Zealand now less than six months away, March and April have not gone to plan for Bryan Easson’s charges, Saturday evening’s 20-13 defeat to Italy in Parma being their fourth reverse in a row.

In all matches to date in the Six Nations Scotland have shown what they can do for 40 minutes, but it is 80 minute performances that are needed to win Test matches.

Ireland were thumped 69-0 by England on Sunday and are currently without a number of their main players who are away in Canada playing sevens.

“I think a big thing heading into the Ireland game is going to be our discipline,” back-row Malcolm, 30, said after her side conceded 14 penalties in the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.

“Our attacking breakdowns weren’t good enough against Italy and similarly our defensive breakdowns let us down so those are two key areas we will be looking to fix.

“In attack, we are creating opportunities which is great, but we have to work out why we are not converting them.

Scotland's Emma Wassell is tackled by Italy's Ilaria Arrighetti. Photo by Tim Rogers/Seconds Left/Shutterstock (12909151s)

“We will reflect long and hard as individuals and as a team this week to find out why we are not finishing things off.”

With Covid, other illnesses, injuries and negative results having made the last few weeks tricky, some may feel the squad could find it tricky to ‘go again’ against the Irish.

However, Malcolm does not think that will be an issue and adds: “The confidence in the group is still there, absolutely.

“Every time we pull on a Scotland shirt we are going out to win and we are going to put in the best performance we can in Ireland.

“We have look at ourselves as individuals and as a team so we can perform at our best against Ireland.

“Hopefully against Ireland we can finish on a high.”