Scotland end tour with four wins from four as Uruguay push side to the brink.
Match Report
With three wins from three, Scotland arrived in Montevideo with a combined score of 167 to 30 having comfortably dispatched Canada, the U.S. and Chile. They would have expected to drive up the points scored column against a weakened Uruguay side who had just come off the back of a humiliating 79-5 defeat at home to Argentina.
Despite some pressure from Uruguay early on, with fly-half Felipe Etcheverry missing three points early on, it looked as though it would be a stress-free evening for Gregor Townsend as Ewen Ashman dotted down from the back of driving maul for their first points of the evening.
Scotland’s slow start to games on this tour came to the fore once again but was perhaps lucky that the opposition suffered from some basic errors as hooker Guillermo Pujadas misthrew four consecutive line-outs.
Despite it being a tour to bed in new faces, it was the old-timers who got the Scots firing. Rory Darge put in a monster shift and Matt Fagerson continued the burst through to throw Uruguay’s defence into disarray. The Glasgow forward and potential Lion showing the leaps and bounds he has come in recent years as his quick hands gave Luke Crosbie space to run through for their second try with Ben Healy making it two from two off the tee.
Tempers began to flare as Harry Paterson was tackled off the ball but it did little to stem the flow of tries as the backs combined well with Kyle Rowe doing the heavy lifting for Duhan van der Merwe to score and become Scotland’s leading try scorer on 28.
Swing in momentum
Rather than run away with the game in hand, the Scots allowed complacency to creep in as Healy’s lagging pass five metres out from their try line was intercepted by scrum-half Santiago Álvarez who ran in for his team’s first points of the game.
No mere blip, Los Teros scored again as Etcheverry made amends for his earlier miss to contribute seven points and narrow the score to 19-14 going into the second half.
Returning from the break, the opening ten minutes showed Scotland’s attack at its most uninspired as the Horne-Healy duo struggled to unpick Uruguay’s defence. It was only a matter of time before Townsend began to ring the changes and sure enough, Healy made way for Adam Hastings.
It failed however to turn the tide as Uruguay soon levelled, blushes only spared by Etcheverry’s inaccuracy from the tee, missing his third kick of the day.
Scotland soon regained the lead as substitute Patrick Harrison finished off a maul to score on only his second cap with Hastings adding the conversion.
The hosts soon began to tire and the quality differential of the respective benches began to show in the closing stages. With the momentum behind them, the tourists looked less like the side that was humiliated by Italy and more like the one that beat England in the Six Nations as name Pierre Schoeman broke through a stretched defence. Hastings missed the subsequent conversion but the score extended to a safe 31-19.
There would no more points until the final whistle blew as Scotland had a try disallowed for crossing, but the end will have brought a sigh of relief as Scotland’s 17th test of the season and an undefeated tour of the Americas came to an end.
No Upsets But Mixed Feeling Around Tour
Despite going undefeated in the four games, there were concerns over the length of the tour in the face of an already congested calendar. As Six Nations rivals had already been home for a week or two, critics have wondered if this amount of games against a lower quality of opposition will have been worth it for Townsend and his staff. Scrutiny could intensify should some of these players suffer fatigue-related injuries next season, which could conclude with a Lions tour for some.
However, there will be those who argue that tours like these are essential for the growth of the game. Sides outside of ‘Tier One’ are usually starved of games against better sides until they reach the World Cup where the gap in quality is quickly exposed. The experience of facing Scotland for the four host nations could prove to be a crucial step in their development.
In bringing a host of new players, with ten uncapped players called up, Scotland has given the opposing four nations a taste of a top side whilst giving new players experience on the international stage, with many expected to return in upcoming campaigns. The fruits of this tour might only be apparent in a year or two for Scotland but for the sides of the Americas, the benefits might be on display in a World Cup or two.
Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash
