McIntyre insists Scotland won't be underestimating Welsh threat

South Wales Argus

08-07-2025

Scotland's Holly McIntyre is not underestimating the threat posed by Wales in their second fixture of the 2025 Six Nations Women's Summer Series as both sides go in search of a first win.
The opening round of games at the Centre for Sporting Excellence in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly saw Scotland lose 31-17 to England in a closely fought physical encounter while Wales slipped to a 27-10 defeat to Ireland in a similarly bruising tussle.
But Scotland battled bravely against the Auld Enemy, never letting their opponents run away from them, whilst scoring three tries in the process.
Alongside Emily Norval and Poppy Mellanby, McIntyre was one of those to cross over on Saturday afternoon, finishing superbly after collecting Lucy MacRae's pinpoint cross-field kick, and the 22-year-old is expecting another tough match against the competition hosts.
39' Try - Scotland's patience is awarded with a try for Holly McIntyre right before the half.#AsOne #SixNationsSummerSeries pic.twitter.com/GNbrSDux4e — Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 5, 2025
'We know that the Welsh pathways and all of their sides are really big on the contact area, so that's definitely something we've looked at,' the Ayr native said.
'We've spoken about that. We know where their threats are, and we know that they've got a couple of players coming in and out of their squads.
'We had a hit out against them last month in Edinburgh, so we feel like we know them pretty well.
'There have been a couple of good chats about areas that we feel we can go after and all the chat around that has been pretty positive.'
Despite the result against England, McIntyre, who will be graduating from the University of Edinburgh next week after five years studying Interior Design, added the feeling amongst the squad has been upbeat this week.
'We've had our meetings over the week, and we are pretty happy with how the [England] game went,' she continued.
'We put on a good display of what we'd been up to in training, and we were really happy with our bravery in the contact areas and our physicality.
'As you can see, we definitely stressed them in areas and there's a positive mood in the group.
'And now, we're looking forward to getting into Wales this weekend.'
Charlotte Russell also shared McIntyre's outlook heading into the Wales game and explained that self-belief will be an important factor.
She added: 'We definitely need to take some confidence in our performance against England, especially with the forwards and at the set piece, we really surprised ourselves with those.
'Now, we just need to back ourselves.'