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Scotland edge Samoa in thriller

Scotland international Stuart Hogg

Gregor Townsend’s first home game in charge of Scotland ended in a 44-38 victory over Samoa in a thrilling 11-try Test at Murrayfield.

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Townsend replaced Vern Cotter in May and has overseen successes over Australia and Italy in his three games in charge.

His first match in front of home support began in sensational fashion as Stuart Hogg scored inside two minutes, the full-back profiting from a lucky bounce to touch down under the posts.

Another five tries – including two from hooker Stuart McInally – followed as Scotland kicked off their November internationals with an entertaining win.

They will hope to pose a similar attacking threat when they host New Zealand and the Wallabies, but their defence will need to improve against such strong opponents.

Hogg’s opening score came after 90 seconds as he seized on a Tommy Seymour kick, the winger having clipped on Finn Russell’s grubber.

Russell added two penalties before Samoa forced their way back into the match through Josh Tyrell as he converted from a close-range ruck.

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Scotland finished the half strongly, though, as Huw Jones and McInally both touched down with the only disappointment of a pulsating first 40 minutes being WP Nel’s substitution with a suspected broken forearm.

If the home crowd had expected the hosts to push on and wrap up a comfortable win after the break they were very much mistaken as Samoa came close to causing an upset.

McInally’s second of the game came off the back of another driving maul, but defensively gaps were beginning to open up and Samoa took full advantage.

Piula Faasalele and the impressive Tim Nanai-Williams both crossed and although Alex Dunbar powered over for the hosts, Samoa were back to within six when Nanai-Williams converted Kieron Fonotia’s try.

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When Peter Horne collected a superb inside pass from Cornell Du Preez the game again looked beyond Samoa, only for Ofisa Treviranus to set up a nervous final few minutes.

Scotland were able to hang on, though, and record their fifth successive win at Murrayfield, their best winning run at home since 1991.

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AM 44 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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