By Darin Hutson

Copyright thesouthernreporter

Right-winger Rhona Lloyd scored an unconverted consolation try for head coach Bryan Easson’s Scots, ranked sixth in the world, on 82 minutes but that was their only contribution to the scoreline other than a 16th-minute penalty kicked by fly-half Helen Nelson. Touching down in the other direction were Kelsey Clifford at the double, Morwenna Talling, Abby Dow, Amy Cokayne and Holly Aitchison, with No 10 Aitchison adding five conversions for the world’s No 1-ranked side. Head coach John Mitchell’s England now go on to play fourth-ranked France in a semi-final this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3.30pm at Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium, a day after New Zealand take on Canada there in the tournament’s other last-four tie. Thomson, 28, kept hold of her No 12 jersey for the full match but full-back Rollie, 30, and hooker Skeldon, 31, both went off just after the hour-mark, with Evie Wills and Elis Martin replacing them. Hawick’s Thomson and Skeldon are now on 75 and 84 caps respectively and Jedburgh’s Rollie is on 81. Toulon Provence Mediterranee’s Rollie and Ealing Trailfinders’ Thomson were ever-presents in Easson’s starting line-ups at the current tournament and Bristol Bears’ Skeldon only missed one of their four games, ruled out by an ankle injury. Rollie played for the full 80-odd minutes of all three of Scotland’s pool matches – wins by 38-8 versus Wales and 29-15 against Fiji, both at Manchester’s Salford Community Stadium last month, and a 40-19 loss to Canada at Exeter’s Sandy Park on Saturday, September 6. Thomson kept her company for 72 minutes in Devon before going off for Wills and Skeldon for 53, with Martin taking over. That followed the inside-centre playing for 63 minutes against the Welsh and 66 versus the Fijians, making way for Beth Blacklock both times around. Skeldon started against Wales and was on for the first 47 minute before being subbed off for Martin. Easson, 51, now bows out as gaffer, having been in charge since December 2020 following an interim period in post prior to that, and he says he’s proud of the progress made by the women’s national team over that time. “Three years ago, we were a 100% amateur team – now we’re sixth in the world. That doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “You can’t just stop that – you need to keep building on it. “We shouldn’t look at this as the end of something but the start. “This world cup has moved the women’s game forward so much, but we have to keep moving at the same speed. “I think there is a recipe for success with this team. “One goal was to reach the knockout stages, and we’ve shown the growth in this group with our performances against Wales and England. “This is a special group of people and we’re hugely disappointed to lose here. We wanted to cause an upset and we had belief we could.”