Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025: Scotland ‘miss lift and have to take the stairs’ against England

Scotland were bettered but not battered, and caused the number two side in the world real problems at times.

They fashioned three excellent tries from Rhona Lloyd, Evie Gallagher and the prolific Francesca McGhie.

The problem was that Canada were ruthless in punishing mistakes and whenever the Scots looked to be back in the game, they were soon knocked right back out of it as the Canadians scored at good times to squash any hint of a comeback.

Pride and frustration were the mixed emotions in the Scotland camp after the game.

Pride at going to-to-toe with one the heavyweight’s of Test rugby.

Frustration that had a few key moments gone for them, such as Helen Nelson’s disallowed try on the hour that would have brought Scotland back within a score.

“I think there was a game there for us to take today,” captain Rachel Malcolm told BBC Scotland.

“The little periods of time where we slipped away, those 10 minutes pre-half time and then also when that try got disallowed, that really was a turning point.

“If that try had been allowed, I’d like to think the momentum we could have built from that could have changed the game. We need to be better at dealing with those little shifts in momentum as well.

“In terms of the performance, I don’t think anyone thought that we had that in us.”