ALL BLACKS TEST
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend revealed that he felt like he was the only one in the stadium not celebrating when Stuart Hogg pounced for the opening try within 90 seconds of Saturday’s 44-38 win over Samoa.
It must be clarified, however, that the lack of emotion was not because Hogg had just equalled his own record of 17 Scotland tries. The coach was referring to the fact that the high of an early try can often lead to a dip, which is what transpired.
Hogg himself had no idea that the score, which saw him capitalise on a fortuitous bounce following Tommy Seymour’s kick ahead, had brought him equal fourth on the all-time list in the illustrious company of Townsend, Gavin Hastings and Alan Tait. Chris Paterson’s 22 and the record 24 shared by Ian Smith and fellow Hawick man Tony Stanger are now in the fullback’s sight.
“I wasn’t aware of that. It’s pretty cool,” said Hogg after the high-scoring match which would see another ten tries scored. “It was right place, right time for that try. We got ourselves into some good positions at times and fortunately the ball bounced into my hands.
“On another day that ball could have bounced elsewhere; fortunately it came into my hands. We were fully aware of the challenge coming our way. We knew they had absolutely nothing to lose so they would chuck the ball about and have some fun.”
Hogg was happy to be part
“We are more than capable of knocking them over. We fully believe we can go out there and get a victory. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong place”
STUART HOGG of another Scotland win but accepted that much work needs to be done before the visit of world champions New Zealand.
“For us, our basic skills let us down at times,” said the 25-year-old. “Our catch-pass,