After getting their BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championships off to a winning start against Norway on the opening day, Scotland were unable to build immediately on that success as they lost to New Zealand and Italy on the second day of action in Nova Scotia.
An excellent last stone draw looked to have set Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson on course in the first of those matches, but after the teams forced one another to take ones, a steal of two at the third end gave the New Zealanders the upper hand and they held the lead from that point on.
A three at the ninth end from the Scots did allow them to level the match heading down the last, but a well judged raised takeout by New Zealand skip Jessica Smith to remove and replace the Scottish stone that had been lying shot on the button secured the 8-6 win for her team.
“It took us a while to get into the swing of things, the ice was running a bit faster than we had got used to in the game before and we didn’t really click on fast enough and just needed to find a way to adjust quicker, which was unfortunate,” said Scottish skip Morrison. 
“We started to get it towards the end but it was too late to get the win.
“They did play a good game and obviously we weren’t on top form, but they did play well.
“We did create a really good three in end nine and it was good to see us build that end together and it was a well executed end and lots of good shots so I was proud of the team.”
Against world number nine ranked Italy they made an excellent start, earning a steal to take the lead at the opening end and there was little between the teams in the opening half, but a steal of two by the Italians at the fourth end gave them the upper hand, 3-2 ahead at the midway break and they built from that to run out 8-2 winners.
“It actually felt like we were quite in control of the game against Italy in the first half despite the steal of two,” said Morrison.
“That was just an unfortunate last stone, because other than that I felt we were playing well but we just let it slip in the second half so we were quite disappointed with that result.”
She remains confident, however, that she and her teammates have the capacity to contend for the end of week play-offs.
“There is still a lot to learn about the Championships, so a long way to go still and hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow as it is very important that we do that to get ourselves a good momentum going for the week ahead,” said Morrison.
“Denmark and Sweden will be two very important games tomorrow. We definitely want to come out and make sure we string more shots together tomorrow morning against Denmark.
“If we do that then hopefully we will get another win on the board.
“That’s the important thing that will set us up well for later in the day.”
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Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Gina Aitken (alternate)
Team Coach Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond
Schedule & Results
Saturday 16 March
Scotland –Norway 6-4
Sunday 17 March
Scotland – New Zealand 6-8
Scotland – Italy 2-8
Monday 18 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Denmark
22.00hrs
Scotland – Sweden
Tuesday 19 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Korea
22.00hrs
Scotland – Estonia
Wednesday 20 March
17.00hrs
Scotland – Switzerland
22.00hrs
Scotland – USA
Thursday 21 March
17.00hrs
Scotland – Turkiye
Friday 22 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Japan
17.00hrs
Scotland – Canada
Saturday 23 March
14.00hrs
Qualification
20.00hrs
Semi Finals
Sunday 24 March
14.00hrs
Bronze Medal Game
20.00hrs
Gold Medal Game
Image: WCF