Women’s rugby: No pain in Spain for Scotland

Scotland’s Women got their quest to qualify for next year’s World Cup off to the perfect start in Spain yesterday when they defeated the Netherlands 29-7 in Madrid.

The Scots went in to the FIRA-AER competition on the back of a poor 6 Nations, but were on top form in this one.

They led 10-7 at the break thanks to tries from Megan Gaffney and Sarah Dixon before a superb second half showing.

Gaffney, the Hillhead/Jordanhill back, added her second try of the day and then in the last ten minutes further tries came from captain Susie Brown and Tanya Griffith, with Lisa Martin and Gillian Inglis kicking one conversion apiece.

During the match, Beth Dickens won her 50th cap for her country, while head coach Karen Findlay was impressed by how clinical her charges were.

Scotland’s next match is against Italy on Tuesday lunchtime and they then play Sweden on Saturday.