THE RUFUS AND

McLean and Steyn rip depleted Tonga apart as Scotland delight Murrayfield

REFLECTING on his own memories of playing against Tonga, Gregor Townsend offered a sobering thought to his Scotland players ahead of this Autumn Nations Series opener.

Townsend was of the belief that the Tongans are the toughest tackling team in world rugby, above and beyond anyone else. He might even still have a few bumps and bruises to support that theory.

Yet, an old truth remains. An inescapable reality which applies just as much in rugby as it does in the sweet science of boxing. Namely, the fact that you can’t hit what you can’t catch.

And so it proved yesterday, as Scotland’s wing wizards Kyle Steyn and Rufus McLean ran riot and ripped the Tongans apart at BT Murrayfield.

Steyn scored four of Scotland’s 10 tries, while 21-year-old McLean got two on his debut, the second of which was the pick of the bunch by quite a distance.

It had been a long time between drinks for South-African born Steyn, who won his first cap in the Six Nations victory over France in March 2020, before belatedly getting his second yesterday.

Indeed, Steyn became the first Scotland player to score four tries in a match for 26 years, going back to Gavin Hastings’ four against the Ivory Coast in the World Cup of 1995.

For Townsend, there will be satisfaction in seeing his team score a bucketload of tries and clock up well over a half-century of points.

But it is also difficult to gauge certain aspects of the performance against a Tonga team who were thrown together at barely a week’s notice.

While Scotland were without their big hitters like Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Duhan van der Merwe due to the game falling outside the official Test window, Tonga were hit even harder.

In relative terms, they simply don’t possess the same depth as Scotland. Theirmatchday squad contained eight debutants, six of whom were pitched in from the start.

They were without effectively all of their senior players, while head coach Toutai Kefu remains at home in Australia where he is recovering from a knife attack at his home in Brisbane.

The South Sea Islanders were priced as high as 30-1 at the start of play, and it didn’t take long to understand why. Particularly in the first half, Scotland carved them open time and again.

As the nation battles on in the T20 World Cup, there was a growing belief that this could end up a cricket score as Glasgow Warriors duo McLean and Steyn hit the Tongans for six tries between them.

The first Scotland game in front of fans since March 2020, the crowd were treated to some terrific tries as the Autumn Nations Series began with a bang.

The visit of Dave Rennie’s Australia next week will, of course, offer a far sterner test — and that will apply tenfold the following weekend when world champions South Africa come to town.

But Townsend can reflect on a job well done. Granted, the quality of opposition meant that it felt little more than a training exercise at times. The benefits, though, were blooding new talent and debutants like McLean, Sione Tuipulotu, Pierre Schoeman, Jamie Hodgson, Jamie Dobie and Ross Thompson.

Hamish Watson was also handed a first run-out after a belated return from Lions duty in the summer, while Blair Kinghorn had a solid outing at fly-half.

A minute’s silence was held prior to kick-off in honour of Sandy Carmichael, the former Scotland and Lions prop, who sadly died earlier this week at the age of 77 following a brief illness.

It was impeccably observed, with the crowd at BT Murrayfield finding their voice with the rendition of Flower of Scotland which duly followed.

They didn’t have long to wait for the

opening try.

With just seven minutes on the clock, McLean pounced opportunistically on a loose ball after Jamie Ritchie had carried into contact.

The Tongan defence were caught napping, McLean scurried away to score, and Kinghorn’s conversion put the home side into an early 7-0 lead.

Tonga replied with a penalty from full-back James Faiva. But their resistance was futile, and it was not long until the home crowd were on their feet once again.

And what a try it was, too. Latching on to a looping pass from Kinghorn, McLean stepped on the gas and left the Tongans for dead.

With an electric burst of pace and lethal footwork to match, he stepped inside two defenders to finish quite brilliantly in the corner.

It was a finish reminiscent of Hogg in his pomp, in those early years of his career when Murrayfield came alive as soon as found a yard of space with ball in hand.

The conversion from Kinghorn was good in what was proving to be a handy display from the Edinburgh man.

Faiva slotted another couple of penalties but, in truth, Tonga were never in the match. It’s hard to be overly critical, given the chaotic nature of their build-up and their patchwork squad.

When Steyn went over for Scotland’s third — and his first — of the afternoon on 24 minutes, it effectively ended any thoughts of a proper contest.

Schoeman (pictured left) then powered over from close range shortly after the half-hour mark, the Edinburgh prop joining McLean as a debutant scorer.

Steyn then completed his hat-trick with another two tries in a five-minute burst just before half-time as Tonga threatened a total capitulation.

The one which sealed Steyn’s hat-trick, in particular, demonstrated why Scotland had scored six unanswered tries in the first half with such ease. A cross-field kick from Kinghorn was speculative at best. Yet, the Tongans simply stopped, apparently incapable or unwilling to deal with the danger.

Steyn more of less had the freedom of Edinburgh to saunter his way into the goal area and touch down once the ball had passed the try line.

Leading 36-9 at half-time, Scotland had their boot pressed firmly on Tonga’s throat. The only question was how hard they would squeeze.

They settled for another four tries — from George Turner, Nick Haining and Oli Kebble, before Steyn then added his fourth in the final play of the game.

Tonga’s consolation came from prop David Lolohea, but it was only a minor blemish on Scotland’s copybook.

SCORERS: Scotland — Tries: McLean 2, Steyn 4, Schoeman, Turner, Haining, Kebble. Cons: Kinghorn 3, Thompson 2.

Tonga — Try: Lolohea. Pens: Faiva 3.