Played two, won two. Not a bad tour so far.
Okay, enough of the deadpanning. The 24-19 victory over Australia in Sydney is one of the best results in modern Scottish rugby history, particularly considering the number of potential first choice players who were absent.
No Stuart Hogg, Greig Laidlaw, Huw Jones, Tommy Seymour, Richie Gray, John Hardie, Tim Visser, Ali Dickinson, Mark Bennett…the list goes on. Yet although they were hanging on grimly at the end – the sight of Tevita Kuridrani almost busting through on the last play again was scary déjà vu – Scotland wholly merited their victory.
Finn Russell gave another virtuoso display, and whatever you think of the timing, he clearly belongs with the Lions. Only I think most Scots would prefer if he was going to Suva to play Fiji, as he’s become absolutely pivotal to the way Scotland play.
Scotland’s defence was absolutely outstanding – especially defending the maul – but the way they constructed the winning try for Hamish Watson was hugely impressive. Having just gone behind, they put together a 22-to-22 move of continuity, super ball skills and most of all composure.
The one issue you would have was discipline. There were far too many penalties conceded, but that has been a trademark of Townsend’s Glasgow teams, always the most penalised team in the PRO12.
There’s clearly a trade-off going on; if they can find a way to keep the penalty count down while still playing like this, Scotland might even be going higher than fourth in the world rankings.
