Absurd to suggest Blair Kinghorn has been dropped - there was more than one reason why Scotland lost to Australia

The irritating thing is that Scotland have lost their last two matches – against Australia a week ago and Argentina in the summer – from a winning position when both matches should have been won.

Blair Kinghorn had a good game for Scotland against Australia despite missing a late kick that could have turned defeat into victory. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Last Saturday of course turned on that last minute missed penalty, not a very difficult kick. Then there was the first-half failure to convert Ollie Smith’s try. There were also some debatable decisions, choosing to go for touch and the chance of a mauled try rather than kicking a simple penalty bang in front of the posts. This of course is a captain’s position, and while 5 or 7 points are better than 3, in a close game it’s rash to turn down a 99 per cent chance of 3.

Blair Kinghorn is a pretty good goal-kicker, but he hasn’t been kicking regularly for Edinburgh. This was the case with Finn Russell last season and he missed a few kicks at goal. This season he has been first-choice goal-kicker for Racing 92, and a successful one. It is very rare for anyone to be a reliable international goal-kicker as Greig Laidlaw and Chris Paterson were for Scotland, if he isn’t, like them, kicking goals every week in club matches. In retrospect I wondered if it mightn’t have been wise to move Kinghorn to the wing or full back and bring on Glasgow’s Ross Thompson for the last ten minutes because he is probably the most reliable kicker in the international squad. But I confess this didn’t occur to me at the time.

Apart from his goal-kicking Kinghorn actually had a pretty good game, his deft pass to create time and space for Ollie Smith’s beautifully taken try being a delight. There has been a lot of talk of him being really a full-back or wing, but one of Mike Blair’s first decisions on taking over at Edinburgh was to move Kinghorn to 10 (a position which I think he often played in his school days) and he has done very well there, responsible for much of Edinburgh’s most brilliant play. Kinghorn is on the bench today, with Adam Hastings at 10, but it’s absurd to say he has been dropped. I guess the decision for the first two Autumn matches was made a couple of weeks ago.

There were other reasons for last week’s defeat. There was the obstinate insistence on pick-and-drive when close to the Australian try-line when moving the ball quickly to either Darcy Graham or Duhan van der Merwe seemed a better option. There were also dropped passes and one wild one in the opposition 22. The line-out was less than secure, a bit scrappy and discipline was poor. 14 penalties are at least six too many to concede – though admittedly Australia went one worse. Finally we suffered the age-old Scottish weakness: slow ball delivered at the breakdown. In this respect Australia were better.

Still today is a different match and a rather different Scottish line-up, something that was to be expected no matter how well last week’s match went. This is something that is always unsatisfactory about these Autumn internationals; they are viewed as an exercise in squad-building. When it comes to the Six Nations you pick your best match-day starting 15 and the bench every time, and in general the country that comes out top will have made very few unforced changes over the five matches. There may be a few refinements of this general rule. You might follow the South African example and have your better front-row waiting on the bench, but Six Nations matches aren’t for experiment – not unless your tournament is going badly. Wise coaches resist any urge to tinker.

Obviously today’s is a match Scotland need to win and – with no disrespect for Fiji – to win handsomely – if only for the sake of morale in camp. Meanwhile it’s agreeable to see Richie Gray back in the starting XV. For a variety of reasons the later years of his career have been less glittering than the early ones. But he is still only 33. He can still dominate the line-out and also, one hopes, make at least the occasional powerful run with ball-in hand, leaving defenders scattered in his wake.The return of a rejuvenated Richie Gray would be splendid, giving a lift to everyone. It’s nice when the sad old Jacobite question – will ye no come back again ? – is met with a resounding “absolutely”.