A comfortable 7-2 defeat of Japan ensured that Scotland guaranteed themselves an eighth place finish at the BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship in Nova Scotia and with that claimed vital qualifying points in the bid to ensure that Team GB’s women will be able to defend their title when the Winter Olympics take place in Milan-Cortina in 2026.
Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson went into the final day of round-robin matches knowing it had been confirmed with the previous evening’s results that they would not get through to the knockout stages. 
However, they also knew that the Olympic qualifying system meant they had to set aside any sense of disappointment and ensure that they were in the right mindset for the first of their matches on the final day in particular.
At that stage the Scots had won one more match than the Japanese, but knew that if they lost that match it would mean their opponents could finish above them because of that head-to-head result, while defeat could also open the door to Norway to go past them in the table.
After a tense opening, which saw the first three ends blanked, they were finally forced to take a one to get their noses in front at the fourth, but the balance of the match shifted when both of Japan skip Miyu Ueno’s stones drew up well short of the house, allowing Scotland to claim a steal of three and they were never seriously troubled from that point.
“We knew going into today’s game against Japan that it would be a really important game for where we finished in the table,” said Scottish skip Rebecca Morrison.
“We knew we hadn’t qualified for the play-offs, but every win’s important this year and staying up the table is going to count in the long run so we’re pleased to get that.
“Our three really set the tone for the game.
“After that we were very much in command and looking good for the win, so we were pleased with that team performance out there.”
As the day began the USA had been the only team the Scots could have overhauled in the table.
Consequently when they won their match against Estonia ahead of their final game against bottom-of-the-table New Zealand, it meant Team Morrison almost certainly knew where they would finish when they met unbeaten table toppers and hosts Canada in their own final match, which was also their first meeting with current world number one Team Homan.
This time around, however, it was their opponents’ turn to register a three early in the match which allowed them to control the scoreboard in running out 8-2 winners and the Scottish skip fully shouldered the blame for their defeat.
“I’m disappointed with the way the game went against Homan,” said Morrison.
“To be honest, the team played away well, but I just didn’t come out to play that game, which was disappointing. 
“It’s not nice to finish like that, so I’m a bit gutted with how it went.
“We went into it knowing we could play freely, took on the game from the early ends and in end two we went really aggressive, but it didn’t pay off.
“They played some really great shots and took that three and it was hard to come back from that.”
Having recovered from a perilous position after they suffered five successive losses early in the event, the Scots took some satisfaction with the way they recovered to finish with a record of five wins and seven losses.
“Top seven in points at the Worlds over these two years will qualify for the Olympics, so with Italy being in the play-offs it means we’ve actually finished seventh in terms of Olympic points and we’ve set ourselves up well,” Morrison observed.
“A good year next year and hopefully GB will get that spot without having to go to the Olympic Qualifying Event.
“That would be lovely, so we’re delighted to put ourselves in a position that that is possible next year.”
She noted, too, that they had demonstrated that they have the capacity to compete with the best on the big stage when inflicting just Switzerland’s second loss in 44 World Championship matches midway through the event.
“Overall it’s a mixed bag of emotions this week,” said Morrison.
“We finished in a great place in that we got lots of wins from our last few games.
“After the Switzerland game we’ve been on a good journey and we’re feeling alright right now, but the first half of the competition was quite disappointing and that’s what’s affected our final position.
“We would have liked to have got a couple more wins in the first half of the competition, but because we’ve ended the week on a good run we’ve come away from the week feeling ok and we’re just glad to have finished off better than how we started the week.
“We really would have loved to have made play-offs and take it further for Scotland, but it wasn’t meant to be this week.
“Hopefully we’ll get another chance next year to come out and try again.”
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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
Scotland – Denmark 2-9
Scotland – Sweden 1-8
Tuesday 19 March
Scotland – Korea 3-9
Scotland – Estonia 12-8
Wednesday 20 March
Scotland – Switzerland 6-5
Scotland – USA 6-8
Thursday 21 March
Scotland – Turkiye 6-5
Friday 22 March
Scotland – Japan 7-2
Scotland – Canada 2-8
Saturday 23 March
14.00hrs
Qualification
20.00hrs
Semi Finals
Sunday 24 March
14.00hrs
Bronze Medal Game
20.00hrs
Gold Medal Game
Images: WCF
