Helen Nelson was not even born when Scotland Women played their first fixture, against Ireland in 1993. But that match retains a special significance for the national team’s vice-captain, as her late aunt, Clare Hoppe, was playing that day for the Irish.
Hoppe, a hooker, died on 29 April last year after a long battle with cancer. Now, as the two teams prepare to meet again in Saturday’s final round of this year’s TikTok Women’s Six Nations, Nelson is determined to honour her memory with a good performance.
“It was this time last year that she passed, and it will actually be her anniversary when we play Ireland,” the stand-off said at the weekend after her team’s 29-21 win over Italy. “So I will have that in the back of my head. It is going to spur me on to play well and go out and do her proud.”
Leah Bartlett and Lana Skeldon got two tries apiece in that win against the Italians at the DAM Health Stadium, while Louise McMillan also touched down. Nelson added two conversions as Scotland brought a 12-game losing run to an end just six days after being beaten 55-0 by France.
“It was obviously great to get the win,” she continued. “We played very, very well in places. If we can back up that win against Ireland then we will be in a really good place. I don’t think we’ll struggle to get up for it. If anything, getting ourselves up after France with a six-day turnaround was tougher – and we went out and put in that performance. I don’t doubt that we will be absolutely firing and ready to go come Saturday.”
Nelson, who was making her 50th appearance for Scotland against the Italians, has experienced both highs and lows with the team since her debut in 2016. But this season there are quite a few inexperienced players in the team, and she believes the home defeat by Wales was a crucial lesson for them, enabling them to withstand a fierce Italian fightback on Saturday.
“We learned from Wales. There are a lot of young players in the squad as well who haven’t experienced those turns in momentum. It’s about recognising that momentum has been against us for 10-20 minutes and just winning the next couple of minutes. We’ll have learned a huge amount from the Italian game about getting back in control of a game and scoring again.”
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