IF you miss tackles and drop the ball, you are not going to beat many teams. It should not be a lesson that Scotland need to learn, but it was dished out in ferocious and vibrant style by a Fijian side bristling with talent and, by the end, self belief.

It was exactly the performance that had been feared from Scotland. The hope that the drive to finish with a clean-sweep summer tour would be enough to keep Scottish minds on the task proved over-optimistic.

Right from the start, they were making mistakes. OK, a slippery ball made it tricky as Fiji decided to deliver weather conditions more reminiscent of Scotland than a Pacific paradise, but it is not as though the persistent drizzle is something the Scots have not experienced before.

The big difference, before the match swung against Scotland in the second half, was in the tackling. Fiji hit hard and accurately, Damien Hoyland, the wing, has particular reason to remember the game with a grimace after twice being lined up by one of the powerful Fijian wings and smashed yards backwards.

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It all seemed to unsettle Scotland, who game away a string of penalties allowing Ben Volavola, the Fiji-fly half to kick five penalties to overturn Scotland’s three-two advantage in the try count.

“If you miss one-on-one tackles at the beginning, your alignment is going to be affected, that was probably our issue,” head coach Gregor Townsend said. “When we were putting our tackles in, especially in the first 20 minutes, we were putting them under pressure, forcing them to kick more than they would want to.

“In the second half, there were opportunities to tackle them behind the gain line, but we missed and suddenly they were in behind offloading – where they are very good.

“The conditions were not great, but we should have been better. The balls we lost around the ruck are not like us, we have a very good ratio of winning the ball in contract. We will have to analyse it, it was either our ball presentation or they were very effective.

“The line-out drive went very well and we got a number of penalties through that, we got tries through that area. It shows what the players can do and the work they have put in with Dan [McFarland] the [forwards] coach.

“That is just one part of the game. The main parts, the defence, the contact, the accuracy in attack were nowhere near where they need to be.”

There was some irony that in one way Townsend was the architect of his own downfall. As head coach at Glasgow Warriors, he had been the man to pluck Leone Nakarawa out of obscurity to propel him to his current star status, and the big lock repaid him with an inspired performance.

“There were a number of Fijians who played really well and Leone was an outstanding example of that,” Townsend admitted. “He is probably the best second row in the world, certainly the best offloading second row. At times we defended him really well and managed to close him down, but at other times he kept his energy and offloading ability and he created a fantastic try.”

He was involved in two of the tries, one outrageous off-load creating the space for Volavola, the fly-half, to cross-kick to Patrick Osborne, the left wing. He took it on the full, barged off the first tackle and found Peceli Yato, the flanker, for the try. His second was a solo break into the Scotland 22 with a more orthodox off-load – with more than a hint of being forward – putting Henry Seniloli, the replacement scrum-half, in.

“I think it’s just the beginning for this team,” was Nakarawa’s reaction. “We’re building for the 2019 World Cup, there’s a lot of players coming in and a lot of players going out, and we want to build a winning culture for this Fiji team.

“We don’t have anything in Fiji, we don’t have any facilities, but we play with what’s inside our heart. Rugby is our passion, we just enjoy playing it and we showed that today.”

The Scots, in response, turned to their forwards. They got nothing from the scrum, made a mess of a couple of crucial line-outs and generally got outblasted in the breakdown but did find a weapon in their driving maul.

Ross Ford got over from the first, his third try of the tour as he broke the Scottish caps record – two tries in his first 107 caps, three in the next three games – and Fraser Brown, for his first international try from the other. In between Ruaridh Jackson, who had moved to fly-half in a shuffled back division after Duncan Taylor damaged his thumb, was first to a loose ball that squirted from a Fiji ruck and went over.

The real problem was that while Scotland were putting all their penalties in kickable positions into touch to drive the line-out, Fiji were harvesting their points with Volavola, the fly-half, banging over five penalties to make sure Fiji were ahead, or at least in touch.

Despite that, skipper John Barclay felt the decisions had been correct: “We picked up a couple of driving maul drives,” he said.

“In the first half the wind was against and they were hard kicks out on the touchline maybe 30 to 40 yards out, so we thought the way we were going we should put it into the corner. They had two guys sent to the sin-bin for some of them so the decisions were right – but execution poor.

“We did not get our attack going the way we can, because of dropped balls and losing in contact,” said Townsend. “We won a number of penalties.

“We have the template from last week – a lot of things we can improve but still a template for beating the best teams in the world – but this a template to say we will struggle against teams in the top 10, top 15 in the world if we don’t get things right.”

Scorers: Fiji: Tries: Yano, Seniloli. Con: Volavola. Pens: Volavola (5)

Scotland: Tries: Ford, Jackson, Brown. Cons: Jackson (2). Pen: Jackson.

Fiji: K Murimurivalu; J Tuisova, A Vulivuli (B Masilevu, 74), J Vatubua (J Stewwart, 70), P Osborne; B Volavola, S Vularika (H Seniloli, 54); P Ravai (sin bin: 29-39, J Veitayaki, 63), S Koto (T Talemaitoga, 61), K Tawake (PM Ducivaki, 79), T Cavubati (sin bin: 15-25, S Nabou, 71), L Nakarawa, D Waqaniburotu (J Veitayaki, 33-39), P Yato, A Qera (C) (N Dawai, 63).

Scotland: R Jackson (Harlequins); D Hoyland (Edinburgh), N Grigg (Glasgow Warriors), D Taylor (Saracens G Tonks, London Irish, 41), T Visser (Harlequins); P Horne (Glasgow Warriors), H Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors, A Price, Glasgow Warriors, 63); A Allan (Glasgow Warriors, G Reid, Glasgow Warriors, 41), R Ford (Edinburgh, F Brown, Glasgow Warriors, 50), WP Nel (Edinburgh, Z Fagerson, Glasgow Warriors, 50), T Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), J Gray (Glasgow Warriors, J Barclay (C) (Scarlets, R Wilson, Glasgow Warriors, 58), J Hardie (Edinburgh, H Watson, Edinburgh, 50), J Strauss (Glasgow Warrior, sin bin: 21-31, B Toolis, Edinburgh, 68).

Referee: P Gauzere(France)

Attendance: 3,500