Scotland coaching transition has been seamless - Nelson

Fly-half Helen Nelson says Scotland will not allow the unexpected departure of head coach Sione Fukofuka to negatively impact their performances in the WXV Series.

Fukofuka departed last month citing a desire to be closer to his family in Australia, only to be announced as the new Australia head coach a little over a week later.

Scottish Rugby expressed surprise at Fukofuka's Wallaroos appointment having released him on compassionate grounds, but Nelson said the players have moved on quickly under interim head coach Dave Butcher as they prepare to face Canada in their WXV opener on Saturday.

"By the time that we came into camp, they'd done a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that we were in a good place and that actually for players, it was pretty seamless, the transition," Nelson told BBC Scotland.

"I think the vibe Dave set and the ethos about camp has been really, really good and we've worked hard the last few weeks.

"We're in a good place now in terms of how we want to play. We've got a strong identity, defensively and attack, and we want to go and test that."

The last meeting between the sides was a 40-19 victory for Canada in the pool stage of last year's Rugby World Cup.

Despite the final scoreline, Scotland competed well against a side who went on to reach the final, and Nelson hopes they can do so again at Hive Stadium on Saturday.

"I think the Canadians thrive in kind of unpredictable play, that's how they want to be," she said.

"So we've prepared ourselves as best we can for that. I think the nature of them is you don't really know what's coming. That game at the World Cup, I really enjoyed.

"I think we went toe to toe with them at times and it's now just putting in that 80-minute performance."