A spectacular finish to their vital clash with Denmark saw Scotland reach the play-offs at the LGT World Women’s Championship in Korea and in doing so achieve their principal goal of securing Team GB’s spot at next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
With both teams still in contention, the match had the potential to prove pivotal and Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson found themselves drawn into a tense encounter with the 2022 European champions.
Starting without the hammer (last stone advantage) the Scots made a superb start, stealing at the first two ends to move into a 2-0 lead, forcing their opponents at the next then, when they got hold of the hammer for the first time, scoring a two to move into a 4-1 lead. 
The Danes responded either side of the midway break however, scoring a two of their own at the fifth end, then stealing at the sixth to level things up at 4-4.
When Scotland were then forced to take one at the seventh end, the momentum looked to have switched significantly in the second half of the match, but Danish skip Madeleine Dupont then missed a relatively straightforward draw for a second shot at the eighth end that would have put her team in control.
That was all the opportunity the Scots needed and they filled the house with their yellow stones at the ninth end until Dupont was left with no option but to freeze to the shot stone with her final delivery.
She played it well, but Morrison followed it with a perfect takeout to leave her team counting five, securing a 10-5 advantage and their opponents accepted at that point that the game was over.
It was Scotland’s fifth win in a row and their play-off qualification allowed them to rest Sinclair for their final round-robin match against China later in the day and give alternate Fay Henderson the chance to play in the World Championship environment.
While they lost that match 7-2 to opponents who were still motivated by needing the win to claim the last of the six play-off places, British Curling Chief Executive Nigel Holl was full of praise for the way the team had stepped up to the challenge.
“We are incredibly proud of this team securing that Team GB place and there is lots of hard work ahead, but we know there is much more potential within this group and more to come from them,” he said.
“This was a truly commendable performance from what is still a young team with only one Olympian from Beijing in Jen Dodds and it reflects the hard work from our team at British Curling who work day-in, day-out at the National Curling Academy to ensure that athletes have the best opportunity to perform when it counts.
“In particular it has been a great job by Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond who moved into this role during this Olympiad along with Team Coach Ross Paterson and our back room staff preparations have helped this team pull off both missions this week which is no easy task at a highly competitive World Champs.”
The Scots will now start their play-offs in the same way they started the tournament by facing World number one ranked Team Homan from Canada, whom they beat in that opener. The winners of that match will take on Korea in the semi finals. Sweden will play China in the other qualification game, the winners of that match will take on Switzerland.
The LGT World Championship is taking place in the Uijeongbu Ice Rink from March 15-23.
Please click here for draw and results.
Watch LIVE games on The Curling Channel.
Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (skip)
Fay Henderson
Team Coach: Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach: Greg Drummond
SCHEDULE:
Saturday 15 March
Scotland – Canada 8-7
Sunday 16 March
Scotland – Norway 7-8
Scotland – Korea 4-5 (EE)
Monday 17 March
Scotland – Italy 7-5
Scotland – Switzerland 5-6
Tuesday 18 March
Scotland – Sweden 3-5
Scotland – Lithuania 9-2
Wednesday 19 March
Scotland – USA 7-6 (EE)
Scotland – Japan 6-5
Thursday 20 March
Scotland – Turkiye 10-6
Friday 21 March
Scotland – Denmark 10-5
Scotland – China 2-7
Saturday 22 March
1.00am Qualifiers
7.00am Semi Finals
Sunday 23 March
1.00am Bronze Medal Game
7.00am Gold Medal Game
Image: World Curling
