LISA Thomson hailed ‘a new era for Scotland women’ after helping her side finish top of WXV 2 with three wins from three.

A second half scoring spree saw Scotland defeat Japan 38-7 in Round 3 to finish at the summit, narrowly ahead of Italy on points difference.

They have now won six in a row in all competitions and are already eagerly awaiting next year’s TikTok Women’s Six Nations.

“The team has come so far the past year,” centre Thomson said.

“We were on a bit of a losing streak and to turn that around and win six on the bounce is unreal.

“We need to make winning a habit and continue this. I am so proud, this is a new era for Scotland women, so we just have to keep pushing and keep striving for more.

“This competition has been hugely important, we’ve faced different styles of rugby. To go into the Six Nations with six wins on the spin under our belts is huge for us.”

Scotland trailed to Iroha Nagata’s early converted score against Japan but a penalty try restored parity in first half added time.

Sachiko Kato was sin-binned on the stroke of half time and Scotland immediately made their player advantage count, Emma Orr crossing just two minutes after the restart.

Coreen Grant went over in the corner and Lana Skeldon profited from a dominant driving maul to stretch the lead further, sealing a bonus point in the process.

The one-way traffic continued as Sarah Bonar dotted down under the posts before the second half ended as it had started, Orr going over for her second of the afternoon.

Try-scorer Bonar, who enjoyed a memorable WXV debut, said: “We have put Scotland on the map, we have shown we can perform on the world stage and we are backing that up with performance after performance.

“Getting those back-to-back games under our belts is massive, we’ll get a good runout for our clubs and the Six Nations is just around the corner.

“The way the international calendar is going suits us and I’m really excited to get stuck in.”

Scotland had a nail-biting wait to find out if Italy would leapfrog them on Saturday, with Le Azzurre needing to beat USA with a bonus point and by at least 25 points.

Leading 30-8 with 17 minutes remaining, Italy looked well set to do just that but they could not find the extra points they needed, seeing a late score ruled out for obstruction to keep Scotland at the summit.

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