Borderer Lana Skeldon now Scotland’s equal-second-most-capped women’s rugby player after making 89th international appearance

Bristol Bears hooker Skeldon’s 51 minutes on the pitch at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium at the weekend during a 66-14 loss to New Zealand takes her tally of caps since 2011 level with long-since-retired loosehead prop Heather Lockhart, with only former No 8 Donna Kennedy ahead of them, on 115 international appearances between 1993 and 2010.

Jedburgh’s Rollie, 31, was also in interim head coach Dave Butcher’s starting line-up, earning her 88th cap since 2015 before going off at the same time as Skeldon, 32, with Hannah Ramsay replacing the Edinburgh full-back and Aicha Sutcliffe taking over from the No 2.

Saturday’s ten-try WXV Global Series defeat, in front of a crowd of 4,194, was Scotland’s sixth loss on the bounce and their fifth in a row against New Zealand, ranked second in the world, four places higher than their hosts.

No 8 Evie Gallagher scored both of their tries, with fly-half Helen Nelson adding two conversions.

New Zealand’s tries were touched down by Layla Sae at the double, Mo’omo’oga Palu, Maama Vaipulu, Justine McGregor, Elinor-Plum King, Amy du Plessis, Amarante Sititi, Tara Turner and Alena Saili, with Braxton Sorensen-McGee kicking seven conversions and Hannah King another.

Paying tribute to Skeldon on going level with Lockhart, 54, home captain and blindside flanker Rachel Malcolm said: “Lana’s our most experienced player, and I think the way that she's gone about her business, not just in recent times but over such a long period of time, is testament to how much playing for Scotland means to her. It truly is her absolute everything.

“She wears her heart on her sleeve, she puts her body on the line game after game and she’s just a brilliant human.

“She’s not someone that’s necessarily the loudest in the group in terms of leadership, but she definitely leads by example and is a massive part of our team on and off the pitch.

“I think for someone like her, someone who really does embody what playing for Scotland is all about, it’s really cool to see her reach this milestone.”

Though Saturday’s result saw the Scots’ current losing streak hit the half-dozen mark – following four losses at this year’s Women’s Six Nations and a 64-26 beating at home to Canada in their WXV Global Series opener seven days earlier – Butcher, 51, reckons his squad are heading in the right direction, saying: “All we asked for the players in this little period, playing two world-class teams, is that we grow through it, and I think that’s what you’ve seen from Canada to New Zealand – there was growth in the areas that we said we’d grow in.

“Now all we need to do is start pushing those areas, connecting those areas together, and if we have 20 minutes of really good play, can we make it 25, can we make it 30, can we find solutions to keeping the ball at the beginning of games?

“They’re the things that you get to figure out when you’re just starting to build a team, but for me, I couldn’t have been prouder of some of the responses that the girls had today.”

Scotland are back at the Hive this coming Saturday to take on Australia, ranked seventh in the world after a 29-26 defeat away to France at the weekend, with kick-off at 4.10pm.