DAD’S THE WAY TO DO IT
RUGBY WORLD CUP Adam adds to Hastings history in vital victory
ADAM HASTINGS wrote another chapter in his family’s remarkable World Cup story by sparking the nine-try demolition job that set up a do-or-die showdown with Japan.
And he hopes his man-of-the-match display will finally stop dad Gavin from banging on about how easy he found international rugby.
The fly-half scored Scotland’s first two tries on his way to a 26-point haul as Gregor Townsend’s men went on the rampage against Russia to claim a crucial bonus-point win.
As long as Typhoon Hagibis doesn’t hit, Scotland will now qualify for the quarter-finals if they beat hosts Japan by more than seven points on Sunday in a nerve-wracking decider.
Hastings was always going to face a tough time living up to the exploits of his famous father Gavin and uncle Scott who were both Scotland stalwarts and British Lions.
But the 23-year-old stole the limelight yesterday to announce himself on the global stage as the family proudly looked on from the stands in Shizuoka.
Hastings joked: “All these years my dad’s been telling me how easy it was so that was nice to shut him up a bit!
“Nah, I’m kidding. It was great having him there – my mum, my uncle and auntie and a couple of mates were out as well.
“It was pretty fun. We played really
well first 20 minutes spoke about being patient all week and not forcing because we were chasing that bonus point. Once we got that fourth try, we all relaxed.”
Old man Gavin almost saw one of his World Cup records matched yesterday when George Horne ran over in the second half for what he thought was his fourth try of the game.
But it was ruled out for a forward pass and Horne had to settle for becoming the first Scotland scrum-half to score a Test hat-trick instead.
Horne said: “It was a shame to get that last try chalked off but wherever I’m put I just love being out there.
“There was pressure going into the game. We knew we had to win and score four tries so to do that and keep them to zero was awesome.
“Russia defended well in the first 20 minutes but we managed to break them down and execute our game plan really well. That laid the platform to let us play our game second half.
“I have a lot of fun playing with Adam – we enjoy each other’s style of game. He kicked excellently and put us in the right areas of the field.”
George Turner, Tommy Seymour, John Barclay and Stuart McInally also scored in a resounding win.
With just four days between the final two games, Townsend rotated his squad, making 14 changes to the team which beat Samoa last week. And the in-comers – including full-back Blair Kinghorn, centre Peter Horne, lock Ben Toolis and hooker Turner who were getting their first taste of tournament action – did not let their coach down.
It took 14 minutes for the Scots to get up and running, with Hastings darting through a chink left in the Russian lines by German Davydov and Dimitry Gerasimov after Zander Fagerson put in a huge shunt to send the Bears’ scrum in reverse.
Hastings was the man to unlock the Russians again minutes later. Spotting acres of space in the back field he kicked through and hared after the ball.
He beat Gerasimov in the sprint then nudged the ball on again with his foot, getting lucky as the bounce fooled Vasily Artemyev into a slip as the ball was presented on a plate for the Glasgow playmaker’s second touchdown.
Russia were being outfought as well as out-thought and paid the price for a horrendous mistake on 22 minutes.
Dmitry Perov took the ball from the line-out but failed to spot Horne creeping up and threw a suicidal pass on his own goal line which the scrumhalf gleefully gathered before scoring.
Townsend’s team now had almost an hour to chase down the all-important bonus point and it duly arrived four
minutes into the second period. While the first period had been frustrating for Darcy Graham with three clumsy knock-ons, he more than made up for that with a stunning 40-yard break.
He was almost in touching distance of the try line but with Davydov closing in the Edinburgh wing unselfishly slotted in Horne for his second. With the extra point secured and the pressure off, the Scots could now enjoy themselves.
Hooker Turner got in the scoring act in 52 minutes, rolling out the back of a maul to dart over the line while Seymour produced a sublime finish to get the ball down before Blair Kinghorn’s clever kick through bounced out of bounds four minutes later.
Number seven arrived in 58 minutes and was started and finished by Horne, with assistance from his brother Pete and substitute Henry Pyrgos in between before he dived over in the corner. Horne thought he had equalled
Gavin Hastings’ Scotland record of four tries in a single World Cup game soon after but had his celebrations cut short when Magnus Bradbury’s scoring pass was ruled to be forward.
But there was still time for Barclay and McInally to expose tiring Russian legs as both forwards powered over in the final few minutes.
Barclay, skipper for the day, said: “We enjoyed that one. Sometimes these games get a bit scrappy and we were a bit nervous coming into the game but we prepared really well. The boys were professional and we came away with a good result. “We have been together so long the boys wanted to put in a good shift and some boys put their hand up for four days’ time.”