Lucy Millard stole the show with four tries against Sweden - Photo: Scottish Rugby

Centre Lucy Millard scored four tries to help Scotland Women defeat their Swedish counterparts 32-0 at Meggetland in Edinburgh on Saturday and secure a confidence boost going into the Women’s Six Nations.

Her first try did not come until the 25th minute after hooker Sarah-Lou Walker made a break into the Sweden 22 and drew two defenders before offloading to send Millard over for the try to give Scotland an 8-0 lead following Sarah Gill’s earlier penalty.

Scotland settled after this try and within five minutes Millard had her second try having been put through under the posts by second row Lynsey Wheeler. The centre wasn’t finished, though completing a hat-trick with a solo effort just before half time.

The home side may have been leading 22-0 at half time, but Sweden started the second half with renewed vigour and Karin Hedlund came close to opening her side’s account following her own deft chip through.

Scotland head coach Jamie Dempsey started to ring the changes then and prop Heather Lockhart dived over for her side’s fourth try to make it 27-0 before Joy Lyth and Natalya Marcholla came on to make their international debuts.

'A force to be reckoned with'

There was still time for Millard to complete the scoring – and ensure a repeat of the 32-0 score when the sides last met in 2004 – five minutes from time to enable Dempsey to draw many positives from the game.

“We’re very happy to keep a clean sheet,” said Dempsey. “Very rarely does it happen in rugby but in the last three games we’ve managed to do just that. We set that goal at half time after establishing the lead and I thought we did really, really well to keep them at bay.

“There are five or six guys in the squad that haven’t been in the squad for a while, or at all, so getting that blend is going to take us time but they showed signs of their willingness to play for each other and play good rugby.

“For the Six Nations we expect, as every Scotland team does, to go out there and play with a huge amount of passion and pride. We’ve got three home games against Wales, Italy and Ireland and, while we need to become a little bit more accurate in finishing off our chances, I thought our contact point was very good today and certainly sets us up well for the future as a force to be reckoned with.”
 
SCOTLAND: 1. Heather Lockhart 2. Sarah-Lou Walker 3. Beth Dickens 4. Louise Moffat 5. Lynsey Wheeler 6. Lynne Reid (Captain) 7. Ruth Slaven 8. Keri Holdsworth 9. Sarah Gill 10. Erin Kerr 11. Ronnie Fitzpatrick 12. Suzi Newton 13. Lucy Millard 14. Cara D’Silva 15. Lynsey Douglas.

Replacements: 16. Alison MacDonald 17. Ellen Beattie 18. Joy Lyth 19. Natalya Marcholla 20. Susie Brown 21.  Laura Steven 22. Vik Blakebrough.

SWEDEN: 1. Sofia Framling 2. Kerstin Lovendahl 3. Henrietta Hogberg 4. Madde Lahti 5. Katarina Boman 6. Elisabeth Osterberg 7. Anna-Lenna Swartz 8. Jessica Berntsson 9. Louise Beaird 10. Ulrika Andersson Hall (Captain) 11. Ninni Johansson-Geibat 12. Frida Ryberg 13. Cissi Lundin 14. Karin Hedlund 15. Anna Holmstrom.

Replacements: 16. Erica Storckenfeldt 17. Annika Hector 18. Susanne Nilsson 19. Viktoria Svangren 20. Sofi Bjorkman 21. Anna Larsson 22. Erika Andersson 23. Elisabeth Ygge 24. Sofia Tortensson 25. Jessica Melin 26. Rafica Schneider.