Women’s World Curling Championship: Scots lose out to New Zealand and Italy

Madeleine Dupont’s Danish side lost their opener against Rachel Homan’s world number one rink from Canada but have since beaten Turkey and Japan as they prepare to meet the Scots in a game being shown live by the BBC.

Sweden’s 2018 Olympic champion, Anna Hasselborg, currently fifth in the world, finds herself at the bottom of the table after three straight losses – to Canada, Norway and Italy.

Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson were favourites against a New Zealand side who made their debut at this level last year, losing every match.

However, Jessica Smith’s rink held the upper hand after a steal of two at the third end and, although the Scots scored three at the ninth to level, New Zealand’s take out with the final stone secured what is their only win of the competition so far.

“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,” Morrison said.

The Scots earned a steal at the opening end against ninth-ranked Italy, but the rink skipped by reigning Olympic mixed doubles champion Stefania Constantinire responded with a steal of two at the fourth to go 3-2 ahead before easing to victory.

“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.”

The win means Italy are one of three teams with a 100% record so far along with hosts Canada and reigning champions Switzerland, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, who is looking to lift the title for a fifth consecutive time.

Watch live coverage of Scotland’s fourth round-robin match with Denmark on Monday at 12:00 GMT on the BBC Sport website & app