Take away the positives, 36-minute blip concerns ex-Scotland fly-half

Scotland finished the Quilter Nations Series as they started it – with a convincing ‘nilling’ of the opposition. Having begun their November schedule with an 85-0 thrashing of the USA, Gregor Townsend’s team kept Tonga scoreless on Sunday, winning 56-0.

Townsend rang the changes for the visit of the Pacific Islanders, with only captain Sione Tuipulotu retaining his place, and the new-look Scotland surged into a 21-0 lead in almost as many minutes, as they looked to shake off the disappointment of losses to the All Blacks and Argentina.

However, Scotland lost their way after that, and failed to score between Max Williamson’s try on 22 minutes and Duhan van der Merwe’s try on 58 minutes, despite Tonga shooting themselves in the foot with yellow card after yellow card.

Once van der Merwe romped over to score his 35th Test try and edge ahead of Darcy Graham again in the Scotland try-scoring stakes, the floodgates opened. Scotland ran in four more tries to finish with eight, George Horne coming off the bench to score twice and kicking three conversions to add to the five that Fergus Burke had managed in a flawless display from the tee.

Overall, though, it was not the 80-minute performance that many were demanding, including former fly-half Ruaridh Jackson, who won 33 caps for Scotland between 2010 and 2018.

Posting on X, Jackson said: “Good to see some guys take their chance. Thought the young 2nd rows (Alex Samuel and Williamson) were good, Burke/(Ollie) Smith/(Kyle) Rowe all looked solid, VDM catching high balls, (Jamie) Ritchie v good and impact from George (Horne). But a large period played against 14 men and not entirely convincing.”