McInally’s on the defensive
STUART McINALLY was not satisfied after Scotland’s win over Samoa – even though his two tries helped set up the victory.
The hooker, below, took advantage of Ross Ford’s injury to put in a man-of-the-match performance, but saw the hosts concede five times in an 11-try thriller at Murrayfield.
Scotland were not at their best and Samoa clawed their way back from 32-10 down.
McInally, earning his first cap for more than a year, admitted there was plenty of work to be done before the visit of New Zealand on Saturday.
“It was 32-10 when I went off, with a bit of breathing space,” he said. “But it was a concern how quickly they responded to our
SCOTLAND SAMOA
tries. We’ll look at our defence, in particular our defence in our 22. They seemed to score a bit too easily, so there’s a lot to improve upon.
“We need to work on looking after the ball because, when we did, we played some really good stuff, but we were coughing up the ball a bit too easily.” McInally’s brace, and tries from Stuart Hogg, Alex Dunbar, Pete Horne and Huw Jones, made sure it was a winning start on home soil for Gregor Townsend ahead of the All Blacks clash.
McInally said: “If I get selected for that one it would rank as one of the highest moments of my career.”