Scotland head coach Sione Fukofuka vowed his side would bounce back after England showed a record 30,498 Murrayfield crowd just why they are world champions by dismantling their hosts in a Women’s Six Nations walkover.
This was a milestone day for Scotland women’s rugby with it being just the ninth time the national team has played at the national stadium — and a first standalone game with a crowd for them — but the performance did not match the occasion.
For the visitors, unbeaten in 35 Tests against all opponents now, it was a routine victory.
For Scotland, it was their biggest margin of defeat to England since the 80-0 loss at Twickenham in 2019 and the highest total of points conceded since the 89-0 defeat at the same venue eight years earlier.
After England posted 12 converted tries to well and truly play the role of party poopers here, Fukofuka said: ‘I’m very disappointed, to be honest.
‘The occasion was fantastic, but in terms of the rugby, full credit to England head coach John Mitchell, captain Meg Jones and their team because they really brought it to us.
The Scots are left dejected at the end of a hammering at the hands of England
‘We now have a lot to work on for next week heading into the Italy game. We will take lessons from this game and turn it around, I am adamant about that.
‘We will dust ourselves down now and I feel really confident that we can turn it around in Italy and put in a good performance.
‘I want to see accuracy — we are a good team and can be accurate under pressure, but in this game we weren’t and England were able to expose that.’
Captain Rachel Malcolm insisted it was a baptism of fire for a new-look Scotland side, adding: ‘It is not what we wanted and the scoreline is disappointing. We are here for performances and we didn’t deliver one here.
‘Where we are in our cycle post-Rugby World Cup, a world No 1 England who are flying aren’t a team that we are ready to compete with yet.
‘This was a bit of a baptism of fire for a lot of our newer players and this new post-World Cup squad in general. England were ruthless and exposed our weaknesses.’
In terms of the 30,000 plus crowd, Malcolm added: ‘I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone that came out to watch us, this was a dream come true.
‘The performance and the outcome weren’t what we wanted but the sheer number of fans created something that we never thought was possible in our careers.’
Scotland actually got off to a good start and No 8 Emily Coubrough carried hard almost straight off the kick-off. They spent the first few minutes in England territory, but in the eighth minute the visitors took the lead and never looked back after that.
A good break by Maddie Feaunati put star winger Ellie Kildunne in space and she did the rest for the opening try. Stand-off Zoe Harrison converted — the first of her 12 successful kicks — and it was 7-0.
They added their second try five minutes later when captain Megan Jones found space and burst over the line.
Scotland started well but were ultimately unable to stop England running out winners
Scotland were then dealt a blow when scrum-half Leia Brebner-Holden went off for a head injury assessment, Rianna Darroch coming on for her debut.
In the 23rd minute Kildunne’s second try made it 21-0. Brebner-Holden returned to the field but England continued to be the dominant force and bagged their bonus point try in the 31st minute via loosehead prop Kelsey Clifford.
Scotland then got themselves on the scoreboard when a neat kick by stand-off Helen Nelson was gathered by full-back Chloe Rollie and she put winger Rhona Lloyd away for her 30th try for her country. Nelson converted, but by half-time it was 35-7 as full-back Emma Sing scored a fifth converted try for England.
Converted tries No 6 and No 7 came for England by the 54th minute, hooker Amy Cockayne and replacement Sarah Bern going over. Bern then made it 56-7 on the hour mark and four more scores came from the visitors, who simply never took their foot of the pedal.
Sub Marlie Packer, back-row Sadia Kabeya and replacements Mia Venner and Haineala Lutui were the try scorers as the atmosphere fell flat in Edinburgh.
