'Learning curve': Scotland A's narrow win over Chile descends into dour battle on dreich night
A dour battle on a dreich evening saw Scotland’s second string scrape to a narrow but deserved 19-17 victory over Chile. An early try by full-back Arron Reed suggested we could be in for an entertaining night, but the game deteriorated after that into an error-strewn struggle.
Scotland A head coach Pete Horne insisted he was pleased that his team had found a way to win against a Chilean side that is a mixture of part-time and full-time players, and that was certainly the biggest plus side of the evening. Much of the credit for the result has to go to Edinburgh openside Freddy Douglas, who, just a week on from his full Scotland debut, was named man of the match after a commanding performance at the breakdown.
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Hide AdThat individual performance apart, the highlight of the home team’s display was their dominance in the scrum. Curiously, that contrasted starkly with the lineout, where the Chileans appeared able to disrupt the Scots’ throw-in at will.


“I was really pleased we found a way to win in the end,” Horne said. “It was a good young, inexperienced team, and tricky conditions.
“I thought we defended really well. They didn’t create much - we gave them a couple of soft scores from an intercept and from a hack through off a dropped ball.
“It could have been another three or four tries out there, which is frustrating. It’s a good learning curve. Those boys will get a lot from that.”
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Hide AdThe senior Scotland side that won 52-11 in Santiago in the summer had been without some of its most able and experienced players. So, while Horne’s squad included a smattering of rookies, they were still expected to win with something to spare - especially as seven other members of the 23 besides Douglas had taken part in the Test against Portugal.
So when Reed scored an unconverted try in the right corner after a fine break by Ross McCann, the game looked like it was going according to script. However, Chile hit back when a loose pass from Scotland captain Stafford McDowall went to ground. Luca Strabucchi hacked on a couple of times then touched down close to the posts, and Santiago Videla’s conversion put the visitors in front.
McDowall was then sin-binned for an illegal clear-out, but to their credit Scotland A managed to shut out their opponents while a man down either side of half-time. However, they were not long back to 15 men when Videla added a penalty after another offence on the deck.


With Scotland 5-10 behind, it seemed vital that they get the next score - and they did exactly that with 25 minutes to go when Tom Dodd followed up well from an excellent break by Ben Afshar. Ross Thompson drop-kicked the conversion to make it 12-10.
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Hide AdThat became 19-10 when the referee awarded a penalty try after Chile collapsed a lineout drive on their own line - an offence for which Raimundo Martínez was sent to the bin for the offence.
But the visitors had the last word right on full-time when Nicolás Garafulic scored off an interception and his brother Matias converted.
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