A bunch of new faces with caps upon their heads gave Gregor Townsend a few tough choices to make for next week, as Scotland racked up the points against the cruelly underprepared visitors from the Pacific Islands.
Darcy Graham’s twinkle-toes from the unusual position of full-back started causing bother within the first few seconds, and the tenacious terrier took a fair scud when he tried to chip over the top of James Faiva, and then Tonga showed their threat and power when George Turner’s first arrow went astray.
Playing with penalty advantage after a high-tackle by Sione Tuipoloto, the Tongans burst through midfield via Loni Uhila, and when he dished it wide to recent Glasgow Warrior’s signing Walter Fifita, the big winger sat down Graham to show that although they may be a touch under-prepared after only a few days together, they have pace, power and inate skills.
Scotland weathered that storm by winning a turnover just short of their try-line, and then when the ball went loose in midfield off Jamie Ritchie, speed merchant Rufus McLean picked up the ball and engaged the afterburners to burst to the line for a try within 8mins of his international debut. When McLean gets tackled gold rings fall out him.
Tonga winger Atu Manu then nearly collected a cross-kick for what would have been a wonderful try, but Faiva took 3-points as consolation from the penalty.
McLean scored a spectacular second with a step and boost from first-phase ball off the line-out, no part in thanks to a cracking pass by stand-off for the day Blair Kinghorn. The Edinburgh man – who I didn’t slag, (this week anyway) blame those other guys on the podcast – knocked over the conversion to make it 14-3.
Faiva scored another penalty before Kinghorn had a bit of a scare with a near intercept but Scotland had been playing with knock-on advantage, so once another debutant, the loose-head prop(er pioneer) had got a shove on, it was quickly shifted to the right wing for Kyle Steyn to dive over in the right corner.
A third penalty from Faiva -this time from a fair distance after Rob Harley was pinged for not rolling away from a ruck – took the scores closer, but Kinghorn’s skyscraping restarts had been causing confusion and after another penalty had been awarded, Scotland were soon over the try-line again through Schoeman.
Scotland were scoring whenever they had the ball, and once again it was first-phase off the line-out and Steyn got his second with an angled run through a disorganised Tongan defence.
Steyn completed his hat-trick after the ridiculously quick and dangerous McLean, had zoomed down the right-wing, Graham took it on further and Kinghorn’s cross-kick bounced fortuitously into his hands for a healthy half-time lead.
Half-time: Scotland 36 – 9 Tonga
Scotland seemed intent on playing at only 100mph which led to a few errors on both sides of the ball, but the only surprise was how long it took them to add to the scoreboard given the way they’d racked up the points in the first period.
This time it was from the line-out as Turner threw to Hodgson, and Turner made it 7 tries from 18 games with a simple maul-over.
Referee Nic Berry let Tonga away with a rather skew-whiff throw which put pressure on Scotland, and after a warning to Ali Price it was Rob Harley who impeded at a tap-and-go charge from the visitors, so the Warriors’ stalwart took a took a ten-minute rest.
David Lolohea provided the last bit of muscle as Tonga crossed the line for the first time of the match as we approached the hour mark, which signalled the entry of Ross Thompson for his debut with Kinghorn moving back to his natural position of full-back.
Tonga’s Aisea Halo saw a yellow-card for a clumsy aerial challenge on McLean which ended his match with Marshall Sykes coming on, and then a huge, borderline – and possibly not – legal hit by Mateaka Kafatolu on Sam Johnson gave Tonga a counter-attack which was stopped in the 22 when Ritchie and Luke Crosbie did enough to disrupt the breakdown.
An off-load which Leone Nakawara would have been proud of by captain Jamie Ritchie deserved the first-time finish by Sam Johnson, but although he was held up just shy of the line, Nick Haining finished the move off.
Stuart McInally had thrown himself about a fair bit since coming on for George Turner, and although he wasn’t able to cross the whitewash Oli Kebble did, having come on at tight-head rather than his regular position on the other side of the front-row, and then with the clock in the red, the lethal Kyle Steyn once again was on hand to finish after the Glasgow young bucks of Dobie and Thompson had gone outside-to-in.
A confidence building bucket of points and a bunch of new caps who impressed, but they’ll have to push hard in training to get into the 23 once the non-Scots based players are integrated into the squad.
Referee: Nic Berry (RA)
SRB Player of the Match: Who else could it be but Kyle Steyn, the first Scot to score 4 tries in a Test match since Gavin Hastings tore the Ivory Coast apart at World Cup 95, he also chased kicks like a demon and was solid in defence.