Scotland reaction: 6 takeaways from USA win - with questions over line-out and home crowd

Scotland have now accumulated 115 points in two matches on their tour of the Americas, with games against Chile and Uruguay still to come.

No-one could grumble about the try count, either – 11 against Canada followed by six against the USA - but Friday’s 42-7 win over the latter in Washington DC felt a little flat. Head coach Gregor Townsend went with the tried and tested, mindful no doubt of his last experience playing the Eagles which ended in a shock 30-29 defeat.

There was no upset this time as the tourists did a professional job but it might have been more useful to see a few more new faces in the team. Here are six takeaways for the match at Audi Field.

Duhan van der Merwe averages a try every 0.675 games for Scotland

Duhan van der Merwe’s early score in DC means he has now joined Stuart Hogg at the top of the Scotland all-time top-try scorers chart. The pair each have 27, three more than Darcy Graham, Tony Stanger and Ian Smith.

The prolific van der Merwe reached the tally in his 40th Scotland appearance. To put it in context, that’s a try every 0.675 matches. It took Hogg 100 games to reach 27 and Stanger 52 games to score 24. Graham, who missed this tour after an injury-riddled season, hit the 24 mark in 39 Tests and the Edinburgh winger will have his sights set on catching van der Merwe and Hogg. The Australian-born Smith, a Grand Slam winner with Scotland in 1925, has the most impressive stats of all. It took him just 32 matches to notch 24 tries and all his scores came in Five Nations or Home Nations games. His tally remained an international record until 1987 and a record for the Five/Six Nations until 2011. With two more games to come against modest opposition – Chile and Uruguay – it looks odds on that van der Merwe will break the record on this tour.

What did we learn?

Jamie Ritchie, winning his 50th cap, on the attack for Scotland in the 42-7 win over the USA at Audi Field in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)

Whereas the tour opener against Canada was used as an opportunity to blood new talent this game seemed less useful. Played out in front of a less than full stadium in poor conditions, it’s debatable as to what Gregor Townsend would have learned from the win. Adam Hastings made a welcome return to the national team and Murphy Walker got a start at tighthead but the humidity made the ball slippy and the second half rain exacerbated the problem and also led to the pitch cutting up. None of this added to the spectacle and for the second week running it felt like Scotland were being denied a seat at rugby’s top table. With England, Ireland and Wales all engaged in thundering clashes against southern hemisphere giants, the game in Washington DC seemed like a low key affair. No bad thing after such a long, gruelling season some would argue.

Ewan Ashman: hat-trick hero but questions over lineout

It seems curmudgeonly to quibble over the performance of a player who scored a first-half hat-trick for Scotland but the tourists botched a couple of lineouts during the opening 40 against the USA. Not all of that was down to Ewan Ashman of course but something went awry which allowed the opposition to steal the ball and turn a promising Scotland attack into an American opportunity. The hosts didn’t have the quality to exploit the situation but a more talented team would. That aside, Ashman deserves credit for his part in the driving maul which proved Scotland’s most useful attacking weapon. His first try caught the eye as he spotted a gap and peeled away.

Is there an appetite for rugby in the USA?

Scotland's Scott Cummings and Duhan van der Merwe contest a high ball with US winger Conner Mooneyham during the second half at Audi Field. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)

The official attendance was given as 17,418 but there were a lot of empty seats at the 20,000-capacity Audi Field. The weather wasn’t great but a few more were expected, particularly when the great and good of World Rugby were in town. Alan Gilpin, the governing body’s chief executive, was sounding the starting gun for the run-in to two Rugby World Cups, the men’s tournament in 2031 and the women’s in 2033. Representatives from 30 cities were in Washington DC to make their pitch to host games. Gilpin talked confidently about the Scotland game being close to a sell-out but a bit more success for the US Eagles would help raise interest. The men’s side failed to make it to last year’s World Cup, bringing to an end a run of six successive qualifications. England will play in the States next year, with Gilpin adding: “The plan is now to build that regular cadence of content that starts to get the rugby fans excited.” It could be a tough task.

Rory Darge growing into the captaincy

Having sat out the tour opener against Canada, Rory Darge returned to the team against the USA as co-captain, reprising the role he’d had during the Six Nations. Finn Russell was his co-pilot then; this time it was Sione Tuipulotu and the pair helped steer Scotland to a solid if unspectacular win. Darge seemed to be the player charged with speaking to the referee and he made one notable intervention during the first-half water break. Scotland had been camped on the US line but were denied a score by the hosts who were happy to concede penalties to keep their opponents at bay. Darge suggested to Australia whistler Jordan Way that a yellow card might be in order. Five minutes later, US prop David Ainu’u found himself in the sin-bin for persistent infringements.

Kyle Rowe relishes his return to action

The fates conspired to deny Kyle Rowe any game-time in the URC play-offs as Glasgow Warriors surged to the title but that shouldn’t be allowed to diminish his contribution to the success. The winger/full-back scored nine tries in 13 appearances during the regular URC season and was desperately unlucky to not even make the bench for the play-off games. He seized his chance for Scotland against the USA, turning in an excellent performance at full-back. Coming hot on the heels of Harry Paterson’s fine showing last week in Canada, the future is looking bright for Scotland at 15, with both Rowe and Paterson ready to push Blair Kinghorn to new heights. The Toulouse man is absent from this tour after his stunning exploits in France where he won a Top 14 and Champions Cup double.