Nelson says Scotland want to make teammate Emma Wassell 'proud' by defending WXV2 title after tumor diagnosis

By Lucy Wilde, Sportsbeat

Helen Nelson says teammate Emma Wassell’s absence from this year’s WXV2 has left Scotland even hungrier to take home a second successive title.

Wassell was diagnosed with a tumour in her chest just weeks before she was set to travel with the team to Cape Town, but with two wins from two the squad look set to make good on their promise.

The last obstacle standing in their way takes the form of Australia, who also enter the clash unbeaten, having most recently conquered hosts South Africa to set up a thrilling finale.

“It was obviously really shocking news for Waz herself but also for us as her close friends and teammates, so our initial reaction was to get around her and support her as best we could,” Nelson said.

“We know we’ve got the opportunity to go out there and make her proud. We’ve talked about it quite a lot - she’s amazing, incredibly tough and resilient - so we’re doing everything we can to represent her.”

As the defending champions, Scotland are still acclimatising to moving from hunter to hunted.

But Nelson believes the pressure is a privilege and testament to the strength and depth of the squad.

“It’s just a different kind of pressure this time around,” she said. “In the past we were winning really close games. Now, against Fiji and Wales, we were winning with slightly bigger margins.

“It’s class to have so much strength in the backline. It’s somewhere we’ve never really been before and the competition in the squad is great - everyone is pushing each other on to be better.

“Whoever is starting, we know then there’s a great bench to come on as well. We’re in a really good, competitive spot.

“We also know we’ve come here and said that we want to win. If you say that, then you absolutely need to deliver.”

If Scotland overcome Australia this weekend, they will write themselves into the history books as the only Scottish rugby team to have defended a title in over a century - an accolade Nelson believes is well within reach.

“We are climbing the world rankings and it’s really cool to be here from where we’ve come from,” she said. “The next step is retaining a title and we’ve been pretty vocal about wanting to do that.

“We’re making a statement with that: we’re here, we’re solid, we’re fifth in the world. It’s a really exciting time.

“We’re all geared up and ready to go because we know we’ll have to play at our absolute best - and we’re relishing that challenge.”