Former England rugby captain Tamara Taylor has said that there is 'no chance' that the Red Roses' Six Nations clash would have been rearranged and played behind closed doors if it was a men's match.

England's match against Scotland was originally scheduled to be played at Scotstoun stadium in Glasgow on Sunday but was rearranged due to Storm Ciara. 

It was then moved to Murrayfield on Monday afternoon, but the huge national stadium was empty.

Taylor said: "Not a chance [would the men play behind closed doors]. It's clearly not the same standards between the men and women.

"I always thought that the two free weekends in the Six Nations calendar were there in case there was a game that needed to be rescheduled. I know a men's game back in 2012 was moved to a free weekend when it was called off very close to kick off because the pitch was frozen.

"I would have imagined the same thing happening in the women's game- and kept it at Scotstoun on one of the spare weekends.

 "I'm just gutted for the girls that they finally got to play in such an iconic stadium, and it wasn’t in the manner in which it could and rightly should have been.

"I'm also gutted for the spectators who had travelled, and then missed out on watching their teams."

Taylor played at Murrayfield in 2006 and she says she experienced a similar environment at the stadium as fans didn't stick around to watch the women's match. 

"I wasn't there [on Monday], but it was obviously very empty. I played there in 2006 after the men's Six Nations game, with a similar atmosphere.

"Hardly anyone knew about our game, and hardly anyone stayed….but, I’d have thought that we would have moved on since then, it's now 2020.

"I'd have thought that if there were safety concerns that meant the stadium couldn’t be opened to the public, and given that there was still a weather warning in place for snow blizzards in Edinburgh on Monday, that perhaps it would have been safer for everyone to just postpone to another weekend.

"I am annoyed at the closed door aspect of the game, as we are still trying to grow the women’s game - why would you take a game from being live on BBC Alba and open to the public, to closed and only live on pay to view TV, on a weekday afternoon?"