Louise Dalgliesh runs the rule over Scotland vs Japan WXV 2 clash

Louise Dalgliesh earned 67 caps for Scotland as a player while she was part of the Japan coaching team at the last Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, so there are few people more qualified to run the rule over Saturday’s intriguing WXV 2 clash between the nations than her.

That’s even more so the case when you find out that Dalgliesh, who is now a member of the Sale Sharks coaching team, has just returned from Cape Town a few days ago and took in the first round of WXV 2 matches in the DHL Stadium.

She was in South Africa last week and into the start of this to deliver and facilitate sessions around the Gallagher High Performance Academy coaching internship programme.

As a result, she was working closely with the likes of Claire Cruikshank (Scotland), Yoko Suzuki (Japan), Gill Bourke (Australia) and Catrina Nicholas-McLaughlin (Wales) as well as Michela Merlo (Italy) who is not out there, but has been taking part in things remotely.

“We had a full-day workshop last Monday with the interns prior to any matches being played and then we had a half-day follow-up on Monday just gone following the first round of WXV 2 matches,” Dalgliesh said.

“The interns are now staying with their respective countries until the end of the WXV competition next weekend and it was really good to catch up with them and go through the workshops and talk through various things.

“I have always been interested in coaching and trying to help other female coaches and that only intensified a few years ago when I took part in World Rugby high performance coaching programmes for women myself.

“Carol Isherwood was involved at the time and she was keen to try and take those programmes to more female coaches and wanted to try and reach coaches in countries who maybe had not had those opportunities before.

“She wanted to know if anyone was keen to help facilitate this roll out of the programme and I said I was and things kind of just went from that point.

“I started helping with a lot of the online programmes that were being offered to people and that has led to me getting involved in various things to help deliver these courses and has allowed me to connect with some fascinating people and grow my own coaching knowledge as a result too.

“Last year I was lucky enough to go to Dubai to help deliver the face-to-face part of the High Performance Academy coaching internship programme and now with Gallagher coming on board as a supporter the programme will hopefully keep growing it and give more and more female coaches the opportunity to gain exposure working with national teams as that is something I am very passionate about.”

Something else Dalgliesh, who spent part of her youth in and around the rugby heartland of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, is very passionate about is women’s rugby in Scotland and Japan.

As a scrum-half, she played in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups for the Scots and is in the top 10 most-capped Scottish females of all-time list.

And, as mentioned, she was in the Japan backroom staff at Rugby World Cup 2021 played in 2022 and very much enjoyed carrying out that coaching role and immersing herself in Japanese culture until she began working at Sale before the 2023/24 PWR season got underway.

Scotland and Japan meet in the Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon with the former looking to build on last week’s 19-0 triumph over Italy and the latter looking to take the positives from their two-point 31-24 bonus point loss to South Africa and grow from there.

The Scots are defending champions and the world’s fifth-ranked team as opposed to Japan who are 12th, so they will be favourites, but it should be a good game and the latter are certainly not a team to be taken lightly.

Indeed, last year Scotland won 38-7 in the corresponding fixture, but were 7-0 down until just before half-time.

“Scotland will be favourites, they know that and they should be, but if we look at the quality of Japanese rugby and the detail they apply to everything they do then they can cause teams real problems,” Dalgliesh stated.

“They have really good rugby IQ in their coaching and management team and they have developed in terms of their general defence, their dominant tackles and in the set piece area.

“They coped well for large parts of a hugely physical game versus South Africa last week and Scotland will have seen the recording of that and will not be underestimating them for sure.

“Japan’s game management is also improving and I think they will have taken a lot out of the South Africa game.

“In terms of Scotland, it has been well documented how much they have grown as a unit and how much a lot of the players have grown together over the last couple of years.

“A number of years ago Scotland were often the young group when it came to international squads, certainly in the Six Nations, but now they have a number of players over the 50-cap mark and they have been together with the current head coach [Bryan Easson] for quite a while.

“That allows messages to really get through and stay consistent while there has continually been value added in as well with young players joining the group and new coaches getting involved and that keeps things fresh, but from a very solid base.

“The quality and depth they have now along with their leadership is phenomenal and that just builds confidence which has being seen by their current run of good results.

“They will want to stamp their authority on this Japan game if they can and it should be a fascinating watch between two teams close to my heart.”

Now back in Manchester, Dalgliesh is getting ready for the PWR 2024/25 campaign.

It starts for eight teams this weekend, but Sale will have to wait until October 12 to get going at home to Saracens.

One player who will not be involved in that CorpAcq Stadium clash will be Rachel Philipps as the uncapped centre is with Scotland in South Africa.

“Rachel joined Sale in the summer from Watsonians in Scotland and is moving to this level of rugby for the first time and everything has happened really quickly for her,” Dalgliesh explained about the 22-year-old Biggar product.

“She had a great first block of pre-season with Sale and was then called up to train with Scotland and she clearly impressed a number of people there as she made the 30-strong squad for the September Tests and then WXV 2.

“I know she is loving being out in South Africa with the squad and is learning so much, soaking it all in and just loving the tour. Her time will come in a Scotland shirt and I am excited for that and I am excited to see her in a Sale shirt when it comes too as I think the supporters here will really take to her. She is direct, strong and has good skills.”