DAVID SOLE

For a while at Murrayfield yesterday Scotland looked as though they were about to slip up on a horrible Fijian banana skin.

Despite having dominated possession, and with two Fijians having been sent to the sin bin, Scotland scored a try on the stroke of half-time to edge just four points ahead.

It was almost a repetition of what had happened in Cardiff last week as there was a slight naivety in attack again.

Whatever was said in the dressingroom at half-time, it had an effect.

Scotland returned to the field more purposeful and rather than some turgid forward driving play, they allowed one of their most-experienced players to direct proceedings and turn their dominance of possession into points.

Scoring 33 unanswered points in the second 40 minutes certainly underlined Scotland’s supremacy and made for a much more reassuring scoreboard.

There were some excellent individual contributions.

Grant Gilchrist and Sam Skinner in the boilerhouse got through a huge amount of work, in set pieces, carrying ball and in defence, where Scotland were every bit as physical as the Fijians.

Most impressive in the pack was young Jamie Ritchie, in for Hamish Watson. He had an outstanding match.

What really transformed Scotland though, was the reappearance of Finn Russell at fly-half.

Towards the end of the first half, you could sense Russell’s frustration at the “white-line fever” obsessed forwards.

There was so much space out wide, in a slightly disorganised Fijian defence, he was desperate to be given the chance to exploit the abundance of ball that his forwards had won.

Instead, he had to wait until the closing minutes to put his pin-point passing into practice, sending Tommy Seymour in for the first of his hat-trick of tries.

In the second half Russell began to control the game in a way that had been missing in the first 40 minutes and Scotland began to get on a roll.

When Adam Hastings emerged in the closing minutes, Russell emphasised his skills, taking a sublime line to put Hastings over for the final try of the match.

Had Russell been in Cardiff last weekend, perhaps Scotland may have enjoyed greater success.

Next weekend the challenge gets tougher with the arrival of a resurgent Springboks team as the opposition.

They too will offer a very physical challenge, but are likely to be much more organised in both attack and defence than the Fijians.

Townsend is likely to make a few more changes, but it will be an excellent test of how far his team are progressing.

Whatever was said in the dressing-room, it had an effect