RWC 2025 – Scotland 29 – 15 Fiji
Scotland celebrated as they made a first Rugby World Cup quarter final on the women’s side since 2002, battling through torrential rain and a torrent of Fijian power and flair for a second straight win in the group stage. Here are some talking points.
Fiji kept at bay with huge defensive effort
Scotland made an impressive 228 tackle effort, led by the back row, and with player of the match Evie Gallagher making a tournament high 35, the most in a women’s World Cup match since 2017. In fact, the top 12 tacklers in the game were from Scotland, with Rachel Malcolm contributing 25 and Rachel McLachlan 18 despite the latter only playing 51 minutes.
It’s not the sheer volume that stands out from Gallagher’s performance. The pitch map shared by Opta shows that 13 of them were within a few metres of Scotland’s try line as she was part of a giant team effort that thwarted many waves of Fijiana pressure. She added two crucial turnovers to end early Fiji attacks for good measure. Gallagher was the standout, everywhere on the pitch in defence and often attack, but there was huge commitment, focus, line speed and bravery from the whole team. It would be remiss when mentioning Scotland’s defence to forget an incredible try saving tackle from Francesca McGhie, who is making that almost as much a speciality as scoring tries for fun.
The missed tackle percentage was higher than against Wales, with only 83% completed, compared to a round leading 95% against Wales, but a lot of that is tribute to the ball in hand skill of the Fijiana, whose running lines and offloading were everything we expect from the best of Fijian rugby. I can’t find stats for the percentage of missed tackles leading to a break or try, but for the most part, it did seem like where one Scottish defender slipped off a tackle, one of her teammates acted quickly to snuff out the danger without too much damage (the exception being the first try).
Canada play with incredible ruck speed and unpredictable attacking plays, and Scotland will have to hope their defence can find a way to withstand one of the most exciting attacks in the game.
Tactical approach pays off, hopefully not at too much cost
The Fijiana are bold and talented enough to attack from anywhere but Scotland gambled on winning the territory game rather than the possession one. This resulted in a territory split of 53-47 in Scotland’s favour and possession split of 37-63 in Fiji’s favour. It of course explains the high tackle count for Scotland.
Ultimately Scotland stuck to their game plan and won, which means it was the right approach. It possibly did make the game a little bit more stressful for us spectators. Scotland had to deal with periods of sustained pressure in their own 22, fewer attacking opportunities of their own and a feeling that until the last ten minutes that Scotland were never quite on top. But I’ll take all those nerves in return for securing a quarter final spot.
The main concern is that this must have been pretty attritional and energy sapping, meaning recovery will have to be spot on to have the team fit and firing for Canada, especially as the coaches have generally not looked to rotate so far. But even if Scotland had kept ball in hand more, and looked to secure possession more than territory, there would still have been big hits coming in and it feels it was worth the risk and effort to ensure the win, and making it more of a free swing against Canada.
Orr’s game smarts to the fore
With such limited possession, not to mention Fiji’s committed defence, five tries (and a borderline call for a penalty try near the end) is not a bad return. Two of the tries came from more structured play or strike plays but three can be directly attributed to the game awareness and talents of Emma Orr, who was outstanding (and probably my player of the match until I saw Gallagher’s tackle stats). The first try came after a missed penalty kick to touch from Fiji and several Scotland players reacted quickly and realise that getting the ball to the left of the pitch will allow for a good attacking opportunity. Orr had the vision and skill to exploit a huge gap and utilise the speed of McGhie, putting through a brilliantly weighted kick – with credit to McGhie for pacing herself correctly to be able to dab a shorter kick closer to the line, making it near impossible for her to be tackled as she gathers and scores.
For the third try, Orr pounced on a ball that has come loose from a ruck and sprint away, giving Scotland field position. This is at least the third similar poach from Orr in less than 18 months that has led to a try, which shows it’s not a fluke but something she is constantly alive to in case the opportunity arises. Orr made crucial metres from the steal, the team quickly sprang into attacking shape, and after a good carry by Gallagher and a neat 1-2 from Rhona Lloyd to Lisa Thomson, Lloyd sprinted away to her second score
Finally, Scotland’s final try was another Orr half length of the field classic. Fiji kicked it out their half, Lloyd and Orr traced back quickly into position and Orr’s hand went up signalling the opportunity. Orr has seen she has space and a mismatch in terms of pace with the defenders on that side of the pitch. These Orr tries from deep are something we have seen time after time for Scotland, but this is not just grabbing a ball and sprinting. There are many things that make Orr one of the best outside centres around; one of these is not only her pace and step to pull these opportunities off, but also her phenomenal ability to spot when to deploy those skills to best effect.
In advance of the game, Bryan Easson had noted there could be potential opportunities in transition. All three of these tries showed quick transition from attack to defence as Scotland counter-attacked to great success, and at the heart of each was Orr’s understanding and foresight to capitalise before the defence could reset.
Limited opportunities mostly taken
As mentioned above, scoring five tries from only 37% possession is nothing to be sniffed at. The two tries from set play showed the clinical edge to Scotland’s attack. The second try, with Fiji having a player in the bin, is perfectly executed. With Helen Nelson and Lloyd lining up behind the scrum, it was easy to anticipate something was on, but it still has to work like clockwork, and it is simple but effective. Leia Brebner-Holden runs a very convincing line to join the main attacking line to the left of the scrum, alongside a hard line from Thomson, so that the Fiji defence has to focus on that side, but it is pure distraction. The timing between Gallagher picking the ball up and fixing the first tackler, and Nelson and Lloyd flashing round, is so well synchronised it looks easy, but how often do we see attacking moves in men’s or women’s rugby have a slight mistime and not quite fire? The precision instead gave Fiji little chance.
For Scotland’s fourth try, which was McGhie’s second, a strong driving maul gained a penalty advantage and then good carries sucked in the defence. Once Scotland recognised that there is a huge gap back where the maul drive happened, they flooded that channel with backs, at one point looking like a 4 on 1. Nelson got the ball quickly to Chloe Rollie to draw a tackle and she in turn picked out McGhie with a perfectly timed pass, skipping Thomson and Orr who are also potential scorers and giving the lone Fijian defender no chance.
One slightly disappointment might be that Fiji effectively played the last 25 minutes down to 14, and yet there was no score after the 59th minute. There would likely have been one with around 3 minutes to go (by weird coincidence, during the minute or so in that period that the Fijiana were back to 15 players) but for a desperate slap down from the otherwise phenomenal young substitute Adi Salote Nailolo.
Scotland may not get a chance to play against 14 Canadians but if they do, they really have to make sure they are on the front foot in that period and make the most of a player advantage.
A word for the Fijiana
This was a genuinely excellent, if nerve-wracking match, and a huge part of this was down to the Fijian team. Some of their ball in hand play was glorious and their ability to find a team mate with an offload, or to hand off their defenders was wonderful to watch (although less fun when it is against your own team). They were held up once and had another try disallowed and had either been scored, there would have been considerably more nervous moments for Scotland.
It would have also got them a fully deserved try scoring bonus point. The aforementioned Nailolo is just 19 but looked sensational, and in a world where the women’s game has the equivalent of a high spending Top 14, she would surely be being snapped up by a big club.
For all their talent, this game did demonstrate one of the areas of inequality in the women’s game, which hopefully World Rugby can look to rectify and help even out opportunity. Of course, part of the advantage that Scotland (and the other teams in the group) have over Fiji is resource, but possibly an even bigger one is consistently getting to play against high quality opposition. Scotland and Wales of course get the W6N every year, while Canada have the PAC4. Meanwhile Fiji’s opportunities can be more limited, with their regular Pacific opponents being Samoa and a much weaker Tonga and Papua New Guinea (if the latter even finds the funds to take part).
The future of WXV has not yet been confirmed, but hopefully a revamped version, along with more effort to give high quality non-competition matches for the likes of Fiji and Samoa (and Japan, Brazil and Spain) can help bridge some of those gaps. With increased opportunities to play high quality opponents together, who knows how far this talented and committed Fijiana team could go? Fiji will have won so many new fans after their performance from this game, even if the spoils of a quarter final place went to Scotland.
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