Any sort of win in international rugby is a cause for some sort of celebration, but the cries of acclamation from the Murrayfield stands after this home victory were lacking conviction and there will not have been any corks flying off champagne bottles in the home changing room last night.
It was more a case of job done for Scotland, whilst accepting that big leaps forward will be required in almost every department when the All Blacks provide the opposition at Murrayfield in eight days’ time.
The fact that the dreaded “Mexican Wave” did several laps of the stadium around the 66th minute gives an indication of just how disjointed and humdrum this game was as a spectacle for long periods.
Fiji are a tricky side to play against but Scotland failed to put them under the sort of consistent pressure during the first hour which would have paid dividends in the final quarter.
Scotland did start in dominant fashion, helped by visiting second-row Ratu Leone Rotuisolia being sent to the sin-bin after just two minutes for an early tackle on Ali Price as the scrum-half ran a quick tap, and it was only a matter of time before the hosts took the lead through George Turner from a line-out drive.
Adam Hastings slotted the conversion, but Scotland then took their foot off the gas, surrendering two soft offside penalties.
On the first occasion, Setareki Tuicuvu pushed his shot at goal to the right of the posts, and on the second occasion, Fiji went for the line-out before hitting it up in the middle to create an overlap on the right for Tuicuvu to make up for his earlier miss by dotting down in the corner.
The penalties kept coming against Scotland, for a dangerous clear-out by Chris Harris and another offside. In fact, Fiji were playing two more offside advantages when Rotuisolia muscled over from close range to put the visitors in front.
At this point referee Nic Berry decided that a 10-minute spell on the naughty step was in order for Scotland’s most recent miscreant, and the finger of blame was pointed at Stuart Hogg.
With five minutes left in the first half, Scotland finally found themselves on the front foot again when slick hands gave Duhan van der Merwe a chance to make ground up the left touchline, and they snatched the lead just before the break when Hastings took advantage of some unusually weak Fijian tackling to scramble over.
It was a bad try for Fiji to concede in both nature and timing, and that knocked the wind out of their sails.
With Scotland finally getting a grip of their wayward discipline, the visitors struggled to establish the same sort of foothold in the contest after the break as they had enjoyed during the first 40 minutes.
Van der Merwe pressed home Scotland’s advantage on 43 minutes by muscling over on the left, with Blair Kinghorn – who had joined the fray two minutes into the second half after Hastings had been flattened by a monstrous hit from Rotuisolia – adding the conversion.
Head coach Gregor Townsend explained afterwards that Hastings had suffered a head and knee injuries at the same time. With the concussion, he faces a race against time to be available for next Sunday’s clash against the All Blacks, opening up the mouth-watering prospect of the exiled Finn Russell making a dramatic comeback, although the coach was non-committal about that being a course of action he would consider at this stage in proceedings.
If Hastings does not make it and nobody else is called up then Kinghorn will start, with the inexperienced Ross Thompson – who has only 21 minutes of rugby under his belt this season – as back-up.
Replacement hooker Ewan Ashman was held up over the line in the 56th minute following some good yardage made by Darcy Graham and big Richie Gray, so play was brought back for a Fijian penalty earlier in the move.
Then Fijian winger Vinaya Hibosi was yellow-carded for a high tackle on Rory Sutherland, mitigated by the fact that the replacement prop was swooping down to pick up a loose ball at the point of contact.
When Graham failed under Fijian pressure to collect a clever cross-field kick from Ben White, play was brought back for a visiting scrum penalty, followed by another scrum-penalty and a warning from referee Berry, followed by a near inevitable yellow card for replacement loose-head Livai Natave for standing-up at the next set-piece.
Not surprisingly, Scotland opted to squeeze the Fijian scrum once again, and this time replacement scrum-half White picked up from the base and strolled through an open door for try number four, converted again by Kinghorn.
Teams –
Scotland: S Hogg; D Graham, C Harris (S Tuipulotu 69), C Redpath, D van der Merwe; A Hastings (B Kinghorn 42), A Price (B White 51); P Schoeman (R Sutherland 51), G Turner (E Ashman 31), Z Fagerson (M Walker, 69), R Gray, G Gilchrist (J Gray 60), J Ritchie, H Watson (J Dempsey 51), M Fagerson.
Fiji: K Murimurivalu (S Maqala 36); S Tuicuvu, W Nayacalevu, K Ravouvou (T Tela 56), V Habosi; V Botitu, F Lomani (P Matawalu,64); E Mawi (L Natave 51), S Matavesi (T Ikanivere 72), M Saulo (L Tagi 51), T Mayanavanua (A Ratuniyara 54), R Rotuisolia (E Mawi 72), A Tuisue, L Botia (,K Kamikmaica 72), V Mata.
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Scorers – Scotland: Tries: Turner, Hastings, van der Merwe, White; Con: Hastings 2, Kinghorn 2.
Fiji: Tries: Tuicuvu, Rotuisolia; Con: Botitu.
Attendance: 58,046
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