Scotland vs Australia: The Talking Points

Scotland finished their Autumn test campaign with a bang, shutting down the much fancied Wallabies attack with some vehement defending and throwing in four class tries of their own.

Sione’s granny will have gone home happy, but what about the rest of us?

This was a fiery test

Down in the Southern hemisphere Scotland are known as the Australia of the northern hemisphere while Australia are a little bit like the Scotland of the Southern hemisphere: flashes of brilliance in attack but raging inconsistency and some weaknesses in the pack.

Despite these similarities that should make them all friends, this test match was carried out at full throttle with plenty of stick and niggle.

Captain Sione Tuipulotu in particular came in for rough treatment from the country of his birth, but took it in typically good spirits, even the potentially dangerous tackle from Suaalii that while not sending him to the bin for failure to wrap his arms – replays suggested he just about got away with it – did send him to the bench with a game-ending injury. Australia’s midfield wasn’t the same afterwards.

It was good to see the Scotland team stand up for themselves and hopefully represents an increased sense of identity. Despite coming second best to South Africa, this spirit was evident throughout the autumn.

Scotland are learning to function without Finn Russell

There’s a reason Sione is captain – he’s now invaluable to this team. He offers so much in the game and not just running in trick lineout overthrows (I hope that was intentional).

His defense is as physical as that of his former countrymen but it is in attack that he is really starting to shine. It’s no secret Gregor Townsend has always sought a second 5/8ths style playmaker at inside centre but there have perhaps been slightly more fragile defensive choices in the past or alternatively who lacked the playmaking abilities needed.

Tuipulotu ticks both boxes: someone who can defend that channel alongside Russell – an equally good defender – but who can also offer a second pivot point in attack to launch Huw Jones and the dangerous outside backs.

That’s not to say that Scotland needed to function without Russell just yet, but they have long needed a realistic way to properly take the defensive focus away from him, which gives him more time to open his bag of tricks – when the moment is right.

They seem to be finding a way to do that now.

Set-piece worries cannot be overlooked

Despite a comfortable result in the end, Scotland never looked that way in the set pieces.

Both scrum and line out misfired badly on occasion, with the scrum giving up penalties on the loosehead side quite regularly. Even Finn’s ridiculously good try came from a squint lineout that Chris Busby neglected to whistle up.

Pierre Schoeman will probably be disappointed with how he went on the weekend, as the scrum was below his usual high standards. With no reliable replacement yet obvious, Schoeman can for now benefit from Ross Ford Syndrome as his place is safe.

Zander Fagerson continues to have a very impressive season and rampaged in the loose to his usual high standards. While it would seem that only a severe implosion could get him off the Lions tour to Australia next year, it might be possible that Scotland’s weaknesses in the scrum as a unit count against him come selection time.

Ewan Ashman has perhaps done enough to secure the hooker birth going into the spring but Scotland’s major worry in this area is that the lack of reliable backups across all three front row positions could potentially cost them late in games against powerful set-piece packs.

Ritchie’s return form was very well-timed

Jamie Ritchie had an excellent game for Scotland which was much needed from the Edinburgh flanker.

The former Scotland captain kept his discipline and was a constant disruption to the Australian breakdown efforts, while Ben White benefitted from quick ball to play from throughout the game.

Competition will remain fierce in the back row going into the Six Nations, with the decision not to pick a captain from among the ranks of that unit allowing Townsend to fully rotate based on form or the opposition. Not even Rory Darge is secure, although it still seems very likely that the first choice back row forwards will be will be Darge, Fagerson Ritchie and Jack Dempsey in some combination assuming all are fit. The injured Andy Onyeama-Christie and the dynamic Josh Bayliss – who took his try very well – are probably the next to slot in for a 6/2 split or in case of injury. Luke Crosbie or Ben Muncaster could potentially work their way into Townsend’s thinking but will need big performances at Edinburgh to dislodge the current unit.

Another Autumn Boom – can we avoid the Bust?

We all know how this goes – Scotland perform well in the autumn, look occasionally stunning without really pulling off any shocks. We go into February pumped for a strong showing in the Six Nations, only for our Scottish faces to reacquaint ourselves with that flat, falling feeling.

Nose meets concrete, bullets meet foot.

Other nations make jokes about it: it’s our thing now.

It’s the reason our guys don’t get picked for the Lions, why they’re not rated (in Ireland in particular – and I don’t mean just Matt Williams); when games that really matter come around in Six Nations or Rugby World Cups they’ve gone missing more often than not. So many recent Six Nations tournaments have ended as an amalgamated tale of what might have been given a grounded ball here, a bit of focus and a correct decision there.

This team now contains multiple recent trophy winners in the shape of the Glasgow Warriors plus the Northampton contingents, and Toulouse’s Blair Kinghorn. Finn Russell will have learned from European and Premiership finals in recent years. They’ve added that big game experience to the talent that has been lurking for some time now.

Will that collective growth be enough to realise this group’s potential? Any finish lower than third should result in serious winding of the Toonsday Clock.

For this set of players to have any sort of legacy than some kind of running joke about over-confidence, 2025 needs to be a hell of a year.

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