SCOTLAND coach Bryan Easson last night insisted that the team can beat Australia on Saturday and get back into contention for a World Cup quarter-final place despite yesterday’s 18-15 defeat by Wales.
Although the Australians also lost their opening Pool A game, going down 41-17 to hosts New Zealand, they will be favourites to beat Scotland, who at 10th are three places below them in the world rankings.
However, Easson appears confident that his senior players can ensure the squad recover their self-belief quickly and perform better in their second game than they did in the first.
“Of course,” he said when asked if his team could defeat Australia. “We’re in a World Cup to compete, not to make up the numbers. I watched Australia closely last night and they’re a good side, but so are we.
“They’ll be disappointed by their defeat, as are we, and both sides will be working hard to put things right. The one thing we’ve got here is some really good leaders. We have got a great bunch who I know will be up first thing in the morning reviewing that game and they’ll be desperate to get going.
“We’re certainly not writing ourselves off because we lost that game. We got a bonus point and the one thing that we can look at is that all of these points are vitally important in terms of qualification.”
Stand-off Helen Nelson missed all five of her kicks at goal, including a late effort that would have put Scotland ahead going into the final play. But Easson was adamant that he did not contemplate replacing her with a back-up kicker.
“Helen has kicked some great goals for us in the past and will continue to kick some great goals for us,” he said. “Never for one minute did I think we needed to change that. I thought the two that she hit from the touchline were tough, they were tight, and she wasn’t far away with them. She struck them well. No, there was no thought around that.”
The coach also insisted he had no complaints about referee Clara Munarini, who appeared very lenient as the Welsh penalty count mounted before she eventually yellow-carded two of their players.
“We’’re not going to go away and say it was the referee’s fault. Absolutely no way.
“There were a couple of little areas that we’ll certainly be reviewing. But it’s about us now, it’s about us making little changes, little tweaks and focusing fully on Australia as of now.”
