Scotland agony as late missed kick confirms Australian win
Glen Young’s second-half yellow card proved pivotal as Australia came from behind to defeat Scotland 16-15 in a dramatic Autumn Nations Series Test at BT Murrayfield. The Scots looked on course for a fourth consecutive victory over the Wallabies when they led 15-6 after a couple of excellent tries from Ollie Smith and Blair Kinghorn.
But the sin-binning of Edinburgh lock Young on his first Murrayfield appearance allowed Australia a much-needed foothold and they managed to turn the game in their favour in the closing quarter. Kinghorn, playing at No10 following Gregor Townsend’s contentious decision not to include Finn Russell in the squad, could have won it for Scotland at the end but he sent a penalty agonisingly wide.
With the match taking place outside the international window, the Scotland XV was made up entirely of Edinburgh and Glasgow players. Flanker Jamie Ritchie, 26, captained the side for the first time since it was announced last week that he would be replacing Stuart Hogg as skipper.
Australia arrived in Edinburgh under pressure after winning just three of their previous twelve matches, while they had also lost each of their last three meetings with the Scots. The Wallabies started brightly, threatening the hosts’ try-line on more than one occasion in the opening ten minutes.
But it was Scotland who made the breakthrough when Glasgow full-back Smith, making his first appearance at Murrayfield, received a lovely offload from Kinghorn and darted beyond a couple of opponents before planting the ball down left of the posts. There were audible groans from the home support as Kinghorn spurned his conversion attempt from what appeared to be a perfectly kickable position.
This aberration allowed the Wallabies to reduce the arrears to just two points in the 15th minute when Bernard Foley kicked a penalty from a central position after Ritchie was penalised at the breakdown. The hosts were forced into a change in the 24th minute as Sam Skinner went off to be replaced by Young.
Scotland should have stretched their lead in the 27th minute when Kinghorn looped a superb pass out to the right for Sione Tuipulotu, but the Glasgow centre dropped the ball just as he looked set to burst over the line. In the following phase of play, Scotland somehow failed to force their way over the line after a sustained spell of pressure in front of the Australia posts, but the visitors did superbly to hold the ball up.
The Scots were left to rue those moments of profligacy as another Foley penalty from 30 metres out on the stroke of half-time edged Australia in front after Dave Cherry failed to roll away. But, three minutes after the restart, the Scots got themselves back in front when Kinghorn, under scrutiny as a result of taking Russell’s place, seized on a loose ball in his own half.
He kicked it in behind the Wallabies defence and raced on to it himself before kicking it forward again, collecting it just in front of the line and bounding gleefully over for a magnificent solo touch down. This time the Edinburgh No10 made no mistake with the conversion.
Kinghorn then extended Scotland’s lead to nine points with a penalty in the 54th minute. The hosts appeared in the ascendancy and ready to put the Wallabies to the sword, but their momentum was halted in the 56th minute when, following a TMO review, Young was sent to the sin-bin for an illegal entry during a promising Scottish attack.
After an hour, amid a raft of substitutions, Jack Dempsey, who won 14 caps for Australia between 2017 and 2019, was introduced for his Scotland debut, the Sydney-born Glasgow flanker being able to take advantage of a recent change in World Rugby’s eligibility rules to switch allegiance.
Within seconds, however, the Wallabies made their extra man count when captain James Slipper forced his way over on the right and Foley once again converted, bringing the visitors back to within two points. Australia then got their noses in front in the 70th minute with a Foley penalty. Scotland had a chance to win it in the last minute, but Kinghorn’s penalty drifted agonisingly wide.
Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
Go to comments