Scots prevail despite hitting self-destruct button against Fijians
Fiji and Scotland swapped their “good cop, bad cop” roles at half-time to let the Dark Blues notch their first Autumn Nations Series win of the autumn.
Scotland opened the scoring early on but then pressed the self-destruct button as a shocking series of brainless offsides and penalties allowed Fiji to take control of the first 40 minutes.
But Scotland stopped the self-harm, their visitors played half of the second period down to 14 men due to sinbinnings for Vinaya Habosi and Livai Natave and coughed up an unsurvivable 13 penalties.
This, though, was far from the “training exercise” Fiji – and former Scotland – coach Vern Cotter had predicted for the home XV in midweek and it looked as if the rampant islanders were going to rack up an unassailable lead as they had the Scots on the ropes.
But credit where credit is due, the Scots steadied the ship and nilled the visitors in the second half. “We improved to win the game,” admitted Scotland coach Gregor Townsend.
“We can’t give away as many penalties. We sorted out the problems at half-time, most of the issues that we were getting penalised for in the first half disappeared in the second half.
“The players know they can play better but they’re delighted they won for Scotland today but they’re well aware they’ll have to play better (against New Zealand) next week.”
Ref Nic Berry flashed no fewer than five yellow cards, the first coming when Fiji lock Leone Ratuisolia impeded a penalty barely 90 seconds into his debut.
As Cotter conceded: “It’s very hard to win a Test match by getting three yellow cards.”
Just as well, then, that Scotland only earned two, Stuart Hogg and Darcy Graham being sinbinned in the first and second halves respectively, the latter heading off shortly after being named Man of the Match for a fearless display of carrying the ball into his much-bigger opponents.
Scotland were second-best for all but the first and last five minutes of the first half, and were constantly being done for numbers out wide as the Flying Fijians launched attack after attack.
But they made the most of their short purple patches as first George Turner finished off an attacking maul when Ratuisolia was in the bin, and then Adam Hastings dashed over after sending the Fijian defence the wrong way by shaping up to ship the ball wide before checking back inside for the score.
His second conversion of the game gave the Scots an undeserved 14-12 half-time lead but he lasted barely two minutes of the second half before being led off after a monster hit by that man Ratuisolia.
Speaking of whom, he plunged over to give Fiji the lead after Setareki Tuicuvu had cancelled out Turner’s try and had Cam Redpath’s last-ditch tackle not stopped scoring a spectacular try, Scotland could have been looking down the barrel of a shock defeat.
As it was, Scotland finally realised they were in an armwrestle and bookended the second period with tries from Duhan van der Merwe, who gathered Chris Harris’ flung pass out wide and wriggled over, and replacement scrum-half Ben White.
The latter score came late on when he simply strolled over from the base of the scrum when the visitors were reduced in numbers once again.
White’s introduction with half-an-hour to go was key to Scotland’s revival as he introduced some vital zip and quick service after coming on for the increasingly pedestrian Ali Price.
Not that the second half was non-stop excitement. There were 58,000 at BT Murrayfield but it was oddly subdued at times, summed up by the unwelcome arrival of the Mexican Wave, a sure sign of a crowd trying to make its own entertainment.
It’s hard to read too much into this game but Redpath looked good at inside-centre, stepping up as first receiver a few times which introduced some welcome variety to Scotland’s play.
And Dundonian prop Murphy Walker went well on his debut, playing the last 10 minutes of only his ninth-ever senior game.
SCOTLAND – Hogg; Graham, Harris (Tuipulotu 69), Redpath; Van der Merwe; Hastings (Kinghorn 42), Price (White 52); Schoeman (Sutherland 52), Turner (Ashman 32), Z. Fagerson (Walker 69), R. Gray, Gilchrist (J. Gray 61), Ritchie (Capt.), Watson (Dempsey 52), M. Fagerson.
FIJI – Murimurivalu (Maqala 37); Tuicuvu, Nayacalevu (Capt.), Ravouvou (Tela 57), Habosi; Botitu, Lomani (Matawalu 65); Mawi (Natave 51), Matavesi (Ikanivere 73), Saulo (Tagi 51), Mayanavanua (Ratuniyarawa 55), Rotuisolia, Tuisue, Botia (Kamikamica 73), Mata.