Key events
42 mins. Scotland win back their own restart which Russell fires to the short side and two phases later Skelton is penalised for lying all over the ruck like the world’s biggest and most cumbersome carpet.
The home side spurn the kick and opt to put it in the corner, but Ashman can’t throw straight.
Second Half!
We’re back underway, forty minutes from either grand slam tour for the Aussies, or a defining win for Scotland.
Robin Russell emails:
“Sitting here in Spain, a country that will dig out half a mountain to make enough level ground to put a soccer pitch on, I kid you not, so sadly only have this text feed from you to follow the game”
Don’t be sad, Robin, I’ll keep you chipper.
Good game so far, with Scotland responding well to a dominant opening fifteen minutes from Australia. The home side are decent value for their lead, but they may come to regret the imprecision that prevented more points to reflect their territory and positive play in the second quarter.
Half Time!
40 mins. PEEEEP! the ball is despatched to touch by Jake Gordon to end the half.
39 mins. Australia can’t win their own lineout as Gilchrist nicks the throw which has Scotland attacking from just in their own half. They move it wide quickly and progress 30 metres forward but Ikitau wraps up the ball to win possession after the ref calls a maul.
37 mins. It remains all Scotland, all the time as they are camped around the Wallaby 22. There’s ambition in the attacks but imprecision creeps in once more, this time Fagerson spilling the ball. It’s all the right stuff they are doing, but it’s about 5% short of coming off at the moment.
This is compounded when Schoeman is penalised in the scrum and Lolesio booms the ball to safety.
33 mins. The supremacy of Scotland in the previous twenty minutes continues, with another attack in the 22 gleaning more penalties as the Wallabies defend manically. The ball goes to the corner and is won in the lineout but spilled forward as Cummings looks to transfer the ball to the maul.
The worry for Scotland is that they should have had more points by now. We’ve seen this movie before.
Confirmed that Suaalii is off permanently.
30 mins. A fantastic set of phases from Scotland that started in their own territory has everyone taking a turn to have a carry or pass the ball, real total rugby stuff. Van Der Merwe and Graham each have a big run and there’s a huge (legal) hit from Suaalii on Tuipulotu. The ball is recycled and they set to work again in the 22 before the attack comes to a shuddering halt with a holding on penalty for Australia.
Suaalii has hurt himself with that big tackle and is off. Not sure of it’s permanent or an HIA, but Max Jorgensen is on.
27 mins. Scotland are having a great day at the breakdown, and this is exemplified by yet another penalty being given against the Wallabies in this area. Angus Bell this time being caught holding on under pressure from Jamie Ritchie’s pilfering.
Tuipulotu has a big carry, but the ball doesn’t emerge and the visitors have a scrum in their own half.
25 mins. Suaalii assumes his now permanent role of restart menace, this time chasing and climbing high above Ritchie to cause chaos. Australia are in a promising position in the Scotland half, but Gilchrist wins a marvellous turnover to relieve the pressure.
TRY! Scotland 7 – 3 Australia (Sione Tuipolotu)
22 mins. Another penalty given away by Australia hands a lineout in the 22 to Scotland. Ashman flings it long over the top to Tuipulotu who puts his head down and smashes through two tacklers and over the line.
Russell converts.
MISSED PENALTY! Scotland 0 – 3 Australia (Finn Russell)
19 mins. Some aggro from Tom Wright, which is absolutely on brand, hands a penalty to Scotland. This is made worse for the visitors when Ref Busby marches them 10m for excessive backchat, placing it in range of Russell’s boot.
It’s bang in front and within 30 metres, but he chops at it a bit and it bounces back off the post. That’s a very bad miss.
17 mins. A better few minutes for the home side as they have the ball and start to warm up their patterns. The passing is busy and expansive just inside the Aussie half but a little lateral and well marshalled by the defence which results in the final pass being forced behind Kinghorn who knocks it forward as he reaches for it.
15 mins. Possession is secured safely by Scotland and the ball makes its way to Russell who spots an acre of space over on the right for Graham to run into. He creams a cross-kick in the general direction but doesn’t quite get his angles right and the ball rolls dead with Graham a few metres short of reaching it.
13 mins. Will Skelton slaps at Cummings in the air at the lineout to concede a penalty and this allows Russell to fire a kick deep into Wallaby territory. Five metre lineout incoming.
PENALTY! Scotland 0 – 3 Australia (Noah Lolesio)
11 mins. A deserved lead is confirmed by Lolesio’s boot. It’s been a strong opening from Australia.
10 mins. The visitors are starting to get some structured carries going in the Scotland half, which is inching them forward. The work is rewarded as the home defence drift offside as they try to recover their positions.
8 mins. A promising lineout position for the Wallabies is ruined by a fabulous bit of getting amongst it work by Darcy Graham at the ruck to win the ball back. The penalty is cleared to touch, but Ewan Ashman destroys the good work with a wonky lineout throw.
“Gervase Greene here in (very) early-morning Sydney, finding myself in the weird situation of hoping a rampant Wallabies can offset the national shame of our aged and hapless cricket team being trounced in the Perth Test. You’ll appreciate this is not a sentence we have had cause to utter in several decades…”
4 mins. A big clearing kick from Kinghorn forces Wright to find touch in his own half. The Scotland lineout is good, but as Russell looks to get the attack going the ball is spilled forward by Jones in midfield.
Nick Mullins has already done a couple of Harry Potter book references in the first four minutes. I did warn you.
2 mins. Australia win the resulting scrum and start fizzing the ball away from the rucks and through the phases in the Scottish half. The structure is good and very pacy, forcing Scotland to scramble, which they do a good enough job of to force Ikitau to kick the ball away.
Kick Off!
Lolesio kicks the ball no further than 5 metres forward, then Scotland knock it on. A truly diabolical start.
The teams are on the way out of the tunnel, Scotland led by Matt Fagerson on the occasion of this fiftieth cap.
The conditions are absolutely superb.
Mark Williams emails:
“I’m in the jungle in Sri Lanka waiting for the termites to bugger off so that I can sit outside and enjoy the sound of the rain and cooling breeze!”
None of that breeze needed here, Mark, as I’m sure you can appreciate.
I’ll tell you what else you can do while waiting for kick off after you’ve sent me an email, you can have a read of some good stuff.
I’m excited about this game, are you? Tell me by emailing me, what else are you gonna do while you wait for kick off?
Teams
Gregor Townsend has addressed the the loss of Jack Dempsey through injury by bringing Jamie Ritchie in for now rare start in the back row, while Scott Cummings returns to lock after his one-match ban. The dazzling back three of Kinghorn, Graham and Van Der Merwe are reunited as Tom Jordan moves to the bench.
Joe Schmidt hands out another tour debut, this time to Harry Potter the former Leicester now Western Force winger, who will bring plenty of opportunities for lazy commentators to make endless hideously tortured magic related references to his play.
Impressive captain Harry Wilson returns to the starting XV, as does the so far incredible Joseph-Akuso Suaalii.
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (captain), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Richardson, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Alex Craig, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Kyle Rowe.
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Akuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen
Preamble
Welcome to Murrayfield for what could be a day of surprises if the unseasonably mild forecast for today’s game is anything to go by.
Scotland disembark their bus in the midst of an odd run of Autumn matches. Handy wins vs teams they should win handily against and a fitfully sparky but ultimately losing performance in the face of the Springboks could have made it tricky to determine where they are as a team. But this is Gregor Townsend’s Scotland so it’s really more of the same for the team he’s built – they are a squad that plays occasional great games, rather than great players of the game.
This is why today, one off test it may be, is so important for the home side. They face an Australia team developing under Joe Schmidt to be a match for the Scots on the mercurial scale, while also collecting an impressive haul of wins on their end of season tour. A win today that keeps the newly rampaging green and gold at bay would reassert Scotland’s position as the best of what isn’t South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland or France and unlike his opposite number, Townsend cannot point to a developing team and gameplan while “taking the learnings”. There is no excuse for losing today; he and the fans know it.
Foreboding aside, this should be a cracker. These are two teams that love a run, offload and plenty other forms of joy/fury generating play. Expect a surprising amount of fun for a Sunday in November.
