Four-try Scotland overcome Fiji despite a rocky first-half period
Scotland overcame a rocky period in the first half to defeat Fiji 28-12 in their second Autumn Nations Series Test at BT Murrayfield. The hosts looked set for a smooth afternoon when George Turner’s early try put them ahead, but the visitors – under the charge of former Scotland head coach Vern Cotter – hit back with two tries of their own and temporarily had the hosts on the ropes.
Tries either side of the interval from Adam Hastings and Duhan van der Merwe helped Gregor Townsend’s side regain the upper hand, however, before replacement Ben White added a further score in the closing stages.
In just the second minute, Fiji suffered a setback when debutant Ratu Rotuisolia was sent to the sin-bin for foul play. The hosts made the extra man count as they bossed the early stages and after a sustained period of pressure, Turner pushed his way over from a rolling maul in the seventh minute for the game’s opening try.
Hastings – given his chance to stake a claim for the stand-off berth vacated by high-profile absentee Finn Russell – was successful with the conversion. The visitors had a good chance to get their first points on the board in the eleventh minute when they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, but Setareki Tuicuvu sent his kick wastefully wide.
Three minutes later, Tuicuvu made amends with a try on the right at the end of a lovely flowing Fijian attack. Once again the wing’s kicking was well off, though, as he fluffed his conversion attempt.
Could there be an upset on the cards at Murrayfield? ?
Fiji take the lead against Scotland! ??
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Fiji had gained the initiative, however, and Rotuisolia – back on after his early yellow card – gave them the lead when he touched down on the left in the 23rd minute. To add to Scotland’s woes, Stuart Hogg was sent to the sin-bin as a result of his team being persistently penalised. Vilimoni Botitu took over kicking duties and made no mistake with the conversion.
During Hogg’s time on the sidelines, Scotland were on the back foot and fortunate not to concede any more points as they somehow withstood some intense pressure from Fiji. They rediscovered their composure after the full-back returned to the fray to even up the numbers.
In the last action of the first half, Hastings produced an impressive piece of skill to get himself free and touch down behind the posts after Ali Price had fed him following a scrum. The try-scorer converted from close range to edge Scotland back in front at the break, much to the relief of the home crowd.
It proved to be Hastings’ last notable involvement in the game as he was forced off with a head knock two minutes into the second half, with Blair Kinghorn taking his place. The Scots stretched their lead in the 49th minute when van der Merwe received a looping pass from Chris Harris on the left and stepped away from two Fijians before touching down.
Kinghorn, who came under scrutiny after missing a last-gasp penalty in last weekend’s 16-15 defeat by Australia, kept his composure on this occasion to kick clinically between the posts from wide on the left.
Vinaya Habosi was sin-binned for Fiji in the 61st minute for a high tackle on Scotland replacement Rory Sutherland. Cameron Redpath thought he had scored in the 73rd minute only for the try to be chalked off for a knock-on following a TMO review, although Fiji were penalised in the form of their third yellow card of the afternoon which was shown to Livai Natave.
The Scots were able to celebrate their fourth try of the match just seconds later when White claimed possession from the back of the scrum and scurried over. Kinghorn added the extras. Scotland wing Darcy Graham was yellow-carded in the last minute but his team had already done enough to secure victory.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments