FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Women's World Cup - Scotland Training - Allianz Riviera, Nice, France - June 8, 2019 Scotland's Joanne Love and Fiona Brown during training REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

(Reuters) - Scotland’s hopes of reaching the last 16 at their maiden women’s World Cup were dented by defeat to England in their opener but they have responded by bringing out their secret weapon for their next game against Japan - rubber chickens.

Footage posted on the Scottish national team’s Facebook site showed players haring around the training field in a bizarre game of tag in which they attempt to avoid being touched, or in some cases whacked, by the squeaky rubber fowl.

“Do not get touched by the chicken,” yells a coach in one of the videos as attacker Fiona Brown smacks a team mate over and over with it.

The Scots will hope to get their campaign back on track with a win over Japan on Friday and forward Lisa Evans said there was much to build on from their performance against England.

“We’ve lost our first game, but I think we just need to put that behind us now. We can take the positives from that game and work on the negative aspects,” she said.

“The goal hasn’t changed, whether that be finishing in first, second or potentially third place, our goal is to get out of that group.

“We see that as achievable and that’’s what we’re looking to do.”

Scotland round out their Group D campaign against Argentina on June 19.