FRANCESCA McGhie will start for Scotland today (Friday) against South Africa in the opening WXV2 match.

The Scotland squad flew out to South Africa last Friday for the competition.

Bryan Easson, Scotland Women Head Coach, has made two changes from the starting line-up that defeated Spain recently.

Easson, who named Liz Musgrove among the replacemsnts, said: "We’re hugely excited to get our WXV campaign underway on Friday as we’re ready to get out there and get going after a positive pre-season period. 

“We’ve enjoyed two consecutive wins at the end of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations and we backed up our recent run of performances against Spain at the end of last month but our attention now fully turns to the new competition.  

“The competition [WXV] provides us with new opportunities but also new challenges as we face three opponents with varying playing styles. 

“To play South Africa in Stellenbosch is really exciting for us and we know that the hosts pose a real threat in terms of their sheer physicality as they have a number of strong ball-carriers in the team and we need to make sure we front up to that challenge on Friday.” 

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McGhie, of Musselburgh, made her Scotland debut in the Six Nations and went on to play a starring role in the remaining fixtures and scored a try against Ireland as Scotland picked up two wins in the competition for the first time since 2017.

The former Loretto School pupil has signed for Leicester Tigers for the 2023/24 season.

Joining her in the squad is Musgrove, who has been capped 16 times.

The North Berwick resident made her debut against Wales in 2018.

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Scotland face South Africa at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch in a 3.30pm kick-off (UK time) before taking on USA at Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town seven days later.

Then, on October 27, they wrap up their competition by playing Japan.

No promotion is offered to WXV 1 but the country finishing bottom does face the prospect of dropping to WXV 3.