Scotland 23 - 10 Fiji: Victorious start to new era

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 20:57

ANDY Robinson got the win he wanted on the day of his international re-incarnation with Scotland, but his team were obviously ring rusty and this performance was some way short of convincing.

Australian coach Robbie Deans won't suffer too much lost sleep when he views yesterday's video ahead of next Saturday's match.

Scotland scored two decent tries through Johnny Beattie in the first half and Graeme Morrison after the break, although there was a stroke of luck about the second effort.

After a series of attacks close to the Fijian line Phil Godman fed winger Sean Lamont who had picked a line off the fly-half's shoulder. The big winger was stopped dead in his tracks by a brick wall of Fijian defenders and in the contact the ball squirted out of his hands. It could have gone anywhere but ended up in Morrison's mitts and the centre only had to fall over the line to score.

There was no such doubt over Beattie's score after Scotland won an attacking lineout inside the Fijian half. Cusiter scooped up the bouncing ball and raced through a gap in the line before feeding his No.8 who still had 15 yards to the line and he flopped over with several Fijians along for the ride.

Beattie's try arrived on 22 minutes. Added to an early Phil Godman penalty it gave Scotland a 10-0 lead and it should have given the home team sufficient confidence to shake off the shackles and play some attacking rugby with ball in hand; sadly it was not to be.

The match never really came to life and fewer than 22,000 fans in Murrayfield were given little to shout about. There are all too few believers in Scottish rugby and yesterday's "entertainment" won't have converted many newcomers to the cause.

Ahead of this encounter Robinson had repeatedly stressed the need for control but midway through the first half the coach was screaming at his scrum-half, "go Cus, go" and pretty much everyone else in the ground was thinking the same thing. For reasons that were not obvious it never happened; like a pensioner at the post office Cusiter was not to be hurried. Time and again he slowed the pace of the game, kicking for position and apparently happy to play a set-piece game rather than upping the tempo and chancing his arm with a few quickly tapped penalties. His clearing of the ball from the breakdown could be timed with a sundial.

The match was crying out for a spark of inspiration from somewhere as often Scotland were sleepwalking through the phases with a series of mindless one-up hits that achieved nothing more than bruises. At times it was eerily reminiscent of Andy Robinson's former international outfit and it can only have been out of respect for the new coach that the crowd did not show their frustration with a chorus of: "Are you England in disguise?"

The Scottish effort had its positive points, not least that they won with something to spare against a team ranked above them, although that was only to be expected since Fiji was giving debuts to five players including the hapless full-back Josh Matauesi who will be lucky to win his second cap.

Phil Godman's radar was spot-on in front of the posts. He kicked three penalties and two conversions in total and even the one he missed hit the post. Sods Law then took over and when the best kicker in world rugby made a late appearance Chris Paterson promptly made a pig's ear of his one and only penalty attempt.

Scotland's superiority at the set piece effectively won them this match. At the coalface Murray Low was a revelation and thoroughly deserved his Man of the Match award. The young Glasgow prop made such a mess of the Fijian front row that his opposite number was taken off at half time to save further blushes. Al Kellock dominated the restarts and, to a lesser extent, the lineout, while the flankers both got through a mountain of graft.

In the backs Alex Grove proved a lot more solid in defence than he looks, with several big hits, and Sean Lamont made two tooth-jarring tackles, one on each of the Fijian wingers, that alone almost justified his selection. But the Scottish backs never really got into their stride.

Despite the fact that Godman sliced the Fijian defence early on with inside passes to Simon Danielli and Rory Lamont both moves came to nothing thanks to a lack of support. Otherwise the fly-half was all too predictable and there were times when he just drew the def ender on to his support runner before delivering a pass that, in the USA, would have had a lawyer right behind it. The fly-half's kicking from hand was fine in so far as it went but that is not very far and it lacked variation because only in the final few minutes of the match did the Scotland playmaker dink a neat little grubber in behind the rushing Fijian midfield which almost resulted in Morrison grabbing a second score.

The Fijian halfbacks are a Little and Littler act which enjoyed a purple patch either side of half time when they set up winger Vereniki Goneva for a try in the right-hand corner but only after Danielli had raced out of the line for no good reason.

Scotland were never in any real danger of losing but the 15 men on the field seemed to be the only ones in the ground who were unaware of this.

Scotland: R Lamont (C Paterson 63 min), S Lamont, A Grove, G Morrison, S Danielli; P Godman, C Cusiter (M Blair 63 min)(N De Luca 78 min); A Jacobsen (K Traynor 63 min), R Ford (D Hall 69 min), M Low, N Hines, A Kellock, A Strokosch (J White 64 min), J Barclay, J Beattie (R Vernon 77 min).

Fiji: J Matauesi (J Ratu 68 min), V Goneva (N Roko 75 min), G Lovobalauu, S Bai, N Nalaga; N Little, M Rauluni (W Vatuuoka 71 min); A Yalayalatabua (G Dewes 40 min), V Veikoso, D Manu, W Lewarauu, I Rawaqa, J Domolailai (S Bola 22 min), A Qera, A Boko.

Scorers: Scotland: Try: Beattie, Morrison. Conv: Godman (2). Pen: Godman (3). Fiji: Try: Goneva. Conv: Little. Pen: Little.

Referee: C White (RFU).

Attendance: 21,821.