DAVID SOLE

Waking up this morning, I would be amazed if Scotland had not registered their first win of the summer tour to the Americas.

As the game kicked off at 2am today, I would imagine that most Scottish rugby fans will have recorded the game to watch over a bowl of cornflakes.

Gregor Townsend selected a side that looked very business-like in the forwards and slightly experimental in the backs.

Given that more often than not, it is the forward exchanges that really define matches, I would have expected this Scottish pack to be too strong and too experienced for the Canadians to really trouble them. Jamie Ritchie, on debut, had a prime chance to stake a claim for a place in the coach’s World Cup squad after a fine season at Edinburgh.

Grant Gilchrist inherited the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Stuart McInally, and he was joined by five other club colleagues, with David Denton and Fraser Brown the only nonEdinburgh players in the pack.

Townsend’s backline had a more experimental look to it, however.

After a challenging introduction to international rugby, Newcastle Falcon Chris Harris partnered James Lang, from Harlequins, in the centre and Ruaridh Jackson filled Finn Russell’s boots at fly-half having spent a lot of the season covering for Stuart Hogg at full-back.

The backs had a youthful feel about them, with Sam Hildalgo-Clyne and Blair Kinghorn, being two players that the Canadians will have wanted to marshal carefully, not giving them much space.

But there would have been a great deal of attention paid to the replacements bench, where the son of one of Scotland’s finest-ever was poised to make his international debut in the early hours of the morning.

Adam Hastings has earned his place on the tour, and will surely have earned his first Scottish cap coming off the bench.

I hope he didn’t have the same first few minutes as his father, Gavin, in 1986 when after kicking directly into touch from the first kick-off, France scored from a quick lineout and Scotland were 4-0 down after 20 seconds of the match.

His father did have the last laugh, however, kicking all 18 points in Scotland’s victory. A similar outcome would be the perfect debut for this outstanding player, who will surely be challenging for a starting position for Glasgow Warriors next year.

So as the dawn breaks, it would be extraordinary to discover that Canada, who are far from the force they used to be in World rugby, had upset the odds and defeated Scotland.

The real focus should be on how Townsend’s charges performed before their tougher test next weekend in the USA.

Townsend’s backline had a more experimental look to it