STEYN & DANDY
Record breaker Kyle turns on four show in Scots stroll
Kyle Steyn became the first Scottish player to score four tries in one international match at Murrayfield and was gobsmacked by his feat.
The winger claimed a first- half hat-trick then dotted down his fourth try on the stroke of full-time as Scotland swept to victory.
Rufus McLean also impressed for the Scots, marking his f irst international appearance with two well- taken tries in the opening 15 minutes of the match.
Fellow new boy Pierre Schoeman, along with George Turner, Nick Haining and Oli Kebble, also got in on the try scoring act. Steyn said: “It’s incredibly special because Scottish rugby is steeped in so much history. So to have even a tiny part in that is pretty humbling.
“I had no idea how long it had been but, to be honest, you sometimes just get those days.
“Three of those tries were off set-piece plays where I got to dive over in the corner.
“Then for the other one Blair Kinghorn put in a cross-kick and he made me work a little bit for it.
“I couldn’t get to it on the full but I got there in the end. I’m absolutely buzzing. I can’t really put it into words.
“Gregor Townsend said before the game that it had been 600 days since we had crowds in and I was like, ‘Shoot, that means it’s 600 days since I last played for Scotland.’
“I’m glad I was able to make the most of this opportunity to get the jersey on again.”
Steyn heaped praise on Glasgow Warriors team-mate McLean, who had Tonga in all sorts of bother with his razor- sharp side- stepping. He said: “You know what he’s going to do but he’s so fast, it’s so difficult to defend.
“I thought all of the debutants were brilliant which was awesome to see.”
Steyn wasn’t one of those debutants but before this match he had only played seven minutes of international rugby off the bench against France back in March 2020.
He was meant to be involved again the next week against Wales but the game was called off due to lockdown.
The 27- year- old then suffered a horror injury which kept him out of action for all of the 2020-21 season.
The long journey back into the national team meant that this was an extra special moment. Steyn said: “I
tore my hamstring and at one stage I thought someone didn’t want me to get a second cap.
“When I got back from that injury we were lining up for the summer, with two opportunities there plus the A game, but those were called off because of Covid.
“At one stage I was thinking that someone has it in for all of us, maybe I’ll just stay on one cap and that will be me!
“When you get an opportunity, you always hope that you get to put your best foot forward.
“Days like this, you want them to come round for so long, then they’re over in a flash. So I’ve just been trying to soak it in and enjoy it with the boys in the changing room. I’ve had a look at my phone and I can see all my family groups on WhatsApp are going mad.
“I’ll have time on the bus and then once I get home to just reflect and go through all the messages.”
“We’ll just wait and see what happens next week now.”
Next up for Scotland is Australia next Sunday and head coach Townsend knows the Wallabies will present a significant step-up in class.
He said: “Defensively we’ll have to be at our very best.
“Austral ia have shown they are a good attacking side and they are full of confidence.
“They’ve won five Test matches in a row and they’ve beaten South Africa – the world champions – twice during the recent Rugby Championship.
“We set very high standards in our defence and at times today it wasn’t at those standards.
“We also have to see how quickly we can integrate the players who are going to come back into the team during the week.
“We’ve got an extra day to prepare which should help us but we know it’s going to be a massive challenge for us on Sunday.
“I’m very pleased that the eight players making their debut for their country did so in a winning performance and contributed to that performance.”