HARD HITTING VIEW

Scotland were looking for a fourth successive victory against Australia under Gregor Townsend at Murrayfield yesterday and it went right down to the wire. With the clock about to turn red, Blair Kinghorn missed a kick at goal and that left the Wallabies victorious by a single point. It was not to be for Scotland and Australia began their tour of the northern hemisphere with a victory.

The first half started brightly for Australia who seemed to find their attacking rhythm very quickly. Scotland’s defence in open play looked decidedly ropey and it was exploited fully by the Wallaby scrumhalf. But where the Scottish defence looked rusty in open play, it was solid close to their line and they dominated the breakdown comprehensively, forcing turnovers and penalties almost at will.

Both sides looked a bit rusty, which was surprising, given that the Wallabies were coming off the Rugby Championship. The visitors’ presentation of the ball at the breakdown was shambolic at best – partly due to the great work of the Scottish back row but partly just carelessness. Doing it repeatedly close to the Scottish line was also criminal and cost them dearly in the first half of the match.

Discipline started to cost the hosts dearly

Jamie Ritchie looked on top of his game although he may have learned a few lessons about his decisionmaking. Opting to kick to the corner, rather than take three points from a simple penalty in front of the posts, Scotland came away with nothing and ended up going into the halftime break one point down. Those three points were the difference when the final whistle blew, but the Scottish cause wasn’t helped by Sione Tuipuloto dropping a sitter, with the try line beckoning.

Scotland’s insistence on going for the catch and drive from a line out did them no real favours. It was a tactic that Scotland repeated, to no avail – which undermined the attacking talent that lay in Scotland’s back three who were relatively anonymous for most of the game.

And discipline started to cost the hosts dearly. It wasn’t just that they conceded penalties, they conceded one after another which not only released pressure on the Wallabies but put pressure on Scotland as good attacking territory suddenly turned into a need to defend.

Some of Scotland’s perennial failings were there to see. An inability to close out a tight match has been a recurrent Achilles heel for Gregor Townsend’s team and yesterday was no different. They have no one to blame but themselves as Scotland were probably the better team.

Next weekend, with their full strength team available, they should put Fiji to the sword. Anything else will just not do.