The game will take place at the Sevens Stadium on Friday, 25 February and the winners will join host nation New Zealand, Australia and Wales in Pool A
It has been a long journey for both teams to get to Dubai. Colombia started their qualification campaign on 7 March, 2020, and are looking to book their ticket to a first World Cup finals in only their fifth Test match.
Scotland, meanwhile, secured their place at the Final Qualification Tournament through the RWC 2021 Europe Qualifier in Parma last September and are now just 80 minutes from sealing their passage to a first Rugby World Cup in 12 years.
The European nation missed out on qualification to RWC 2014 by a point to Samoa and then lost against Spain in a two-legged play-off for a place at the next tournament in Ireland in 2017.
“We’re not going to deny what qualification would mean to everybody,” said Scotland coach Bryan Easson.
“We’re focused purely on the game and on how we are working together. There are a few players in our group who played in 2013 in the qualifier and a few more who then played in 2017.
“They’ve been working extremely hard for the last eight years on what has been a long journey. To get to the World Cup, to get to New Zealand would be the ultimate for everybody.”
Easson has picked a squad full of experience for the match in Dubai, with props Leah Bartlett and Christine Belisle the only players included in the starting 15 who have less than 23 caps to their name.
The Scotland coach has made only two changes to the team that played in their most recent match, a 36-12 win against Japan in November. Louise McMillan replaces Sarah Bonar in the second row, while Sarah Law has been named at fly-half, with Helen Nelson moving to centre to cover for the loss of Hannah Smith.
Eva Donaldson and Caity Mattinson – who played seven tests for England in 2017 and 2018 – could make their Scotland debuts from the replacements’ bench in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Colombia coach Lissete Martinez has made a couple of changes to the team that beat Kazakhstan last weekend. Angie Manyoma has come into the back-row to replace Maribel Mestra, who was shown a red card during the first half at The Sevens Stadium and was subsequently suspended for three weeks.
Manyoma will start in the number six jersey with Valeria Muñoz switching to openside flanker and Tatiana Hernandez moving to No8. The other change is at full-back, where Laura Mejia is promoted to the starting XV in place of Valentina Tapias, who drops down onto the bench.
Leidy Soto, who scored the first try of her country’s RWC 2021 qualification campaign against Brazil almost two years ago, will once again captain Las Tucanes on Friday. Since their win in Medellin, Colombia have beaten Kenya and Kazakhstan.
