By Lucy Wilde, Sportsbeat

Rachel Malcolm believes victory against Australia in Saturday’s WXV2 title decider will cement her side’s status as ‘the best Scotland women’s side there has ever been’.

Both teams enter the head-to-head with two wins from as many games, with Scotland’s 19-13 victory over Japan last weekend setting up a winner-takes-all showdown in Cape Town.

Malcolm sees the clash as a chance to show Scotland’s ability to compete with the big guns on the world stage and prove last year was no fluke.

“We want to assert ourselves as a top five team in the world, which we already are, but to challenge the four teams ahead of us we need to prove ourselves. Retaining a title would do that,” said the captain.

“It’s a totally different feeling [heading into the final]. Last year it was very much a novelty, we’d come off the back of a tough spell and the win really spring-boarded us towards the team we’ve now become.

“Being able to retain a title is not something many people can do in sport, particularly as Scots, there’s not that many examples we can follow out there, so it’s a different challenge this time.

“We want to solidify ourselves as the best Scotland women’s team there has ever been, inspire support and young girls to take up the game. Going back-to-back on championships is the way to do that.”

Scotland last faced Australia during the most recent World Cup - a nerve-shredding contest which ended 12-14 in the Wallaroos’ favour - but Malcolm insists the side have come a long way since then.

“Australia are a team filled with athletes, they have big ball carriers and fast wingers, so to get a result we’re going to have to be at our absolute best both in attack and defence,” she said.

“We can draw on a huge amount of experience from last year and in terms of our ability to see out games now, that’s something we can take huge amounts of confidence in. We have the killer mindset now. 

“The match against Japan is an example, we showed we can find ways to win when our performance isn’t necessarily at 100%. In international rugby you might only get one opportunity, so you have to be ruthless and do everything in your power to execute that. 

“It will be an absolute dog fight out there if our last game against Australia is anything to go by, but this is where we want to be, in the big high stakes games.”

Head coach Bryan Easson has made seven changes from last week’s side which faced Japan, with Leia Brebner-Holden set to make her first start at scrum-half while Elliann Clarke makes her second.

Malcolm celebrated 50 caps when she stepped out during Scotland’s opener against Italy and feels the strength and depth of the 30-player squad has been the recipe for their success.

“I think we’re getting to a point in this team where whether you’re starting or ending on the pitch, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all because we need 85-minute performances,” she said. 

“We’ve had a mindset anchor while we’ve been here around different athletes and one of the one’s we’ve used is Serena Williams - ‘There would be no Serena without Venus’.

“We know to be the best, whoever is opposite you needs to be at their best and challenge you. This is where we’ve been trying to get to as a Scotland team for a long time, so hopefully we see the fruits of that labour this weekend.”