SCOTLAND will play Colombia on Friday for the last place in this year’s Rugby World Cup after the South Americans beat Kazakhstan 18-10 in yesterday’s Final Qualification Tournament semi-final. Bryan Easson’s team have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups, but after strong performances in European qualifying they will be favourites to win the match in Dubai against a team who are 17 places below them in the global rankings.
Although it is an unfamiliar position for the squad to be in, Sarah Law, for one, believes they are equipped to cope with the pressure. “It is something we have chatted about, because it’s something we’ve never had before,” said the stand-off, whose last-gasp conversion against Ireland gave the Scots the win that took them into this last stage of qualifying.
“There are a lot of us who have been around a while now and we have the experience of winning games at international level, which is something that we didn’t do too much in the last two World Cup qualifying campaigns. There is an entire generation of Scottish girls who haven’t seen Scotland on the world stage.
“It has been 12 years since Scotland have been there. And I think it would be an incredible high to get to a World Cup and perform on that stage.”
The Colombians had a woman sent off after 15 minutes in yesterday’s semi-final, and when Kazakhstan scored a try to close to 15-10 with five minutes to go it looked like the extra player would tell in the Asian team’s favour. But, in a tense conclusion, Colombia were able to get back on the front foot and closed the game out with a penalty.
Friday’s match kicks off at 3pm British time and will be streamed on World Rugby’s YouTube channel and shown live on BBC Alba.
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