Very rarely will you see a better individual performance than this from Francesca McGhie.

The Scotland winger, in her very first World Cup appearance, was sublime in all facets, scoring a hat-trick and helping Scotland to a vital 38-8 victory over Wales.

Read more: Samoa show Women’s Rugby World Cup is about far more than just winning

It wasn’t just the tries but the endeavour from the Trailfinders speedster. She made a try-saving tackle on Wales full-back Nel Metcalfe after a lovely chip and chase had her surging towards the tryline.

Not satisfied with that, McGhie also used her pace to charge down a Welsh kick, helping to heap the pressure back onto her opponents. At just 22 and in her first World Cup, it was mightily impressive. She is the first Scottish woman to ever score a hat-trick against Wales and the first Scotland player of any kind to achieve the feat in 100 years.

After the game, McGhie said: “I haven’t scored a hat-trick in a Scotland jersey (before) and I think only one in a club jersey so I’m very proud of that. But I think they were well-worked team tries and it just happened to be me that put the ball over the line.

“I think sometimes your performance isn’t quantified by how many tries you score. So I was proud of the performance despite the hat-trick.

“We thought it was going to be closer but we knew exactly what we wanted to get out of that game. All we wanted to do was keep Wales out and we did. I think this is a great place to be in; we have two very physical, very fast games coming up so looking forward to them as well.”

With Pool B also containing the world’s No 2 ranked side Canada and minnows Fiji, this was always likely to be a straight shoot-out for the second quarter-final slot and now Bryan Easson’s side are in pole position to make the knockouts for the first time in 15 years.

Wing McGhie’s hat-trick and scores for debutant scrum-half Leia Brebner-Holden, No 8 Evie Gallacher and centre Emma Orr wrapped up what ultimately became a very convincing victory in a fixture that is usually so closely fought.

There’s a trend of these two sides, who are separated by just one place in the world rankings (Scotland 8th, Wales 9th) meeting in opening clashes. Keira Bevan kicked Wales to a last-gasp victory in the corresponding fixture in the 2022 World Cup and they have kickstarted their Six Nations campaigns against each other in the last two years, Scotland winning by just two and three points.

Now they also have revenge for that defeat in New Zealand three years’ ago which ultimately helped Wales progress. Sean Lynn’s side have blew hot and cold in preparation, beating Australia once before falling off badly second time around in Sydney.

What makes Scotland’s result even more impressive is the contractual background to proceedings. There has been shock at the revelation that Easson will leave his role as head coach after this tournament and players were told in June they would not be getting long-term contracts renewed.

That only appears to have united the playing group who showed tremendous spirit at the Salford Community Stadium on Saturday.

In contrast, it’s another hammer blow for the WRU who are still feeling the backlash from their proposal to slash the number of professional men’s sides from four to two in a seismic restructure to the game.

Now Sean Lynn’s side must dust themselves off and prepare for the daunting task of facing the in-form Canadians, while the Scots will look to make it two wins from two when they come up against the Fijiana.

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