Scotland 43 Uruguay 12

Scotland emerged victorious but with little glory from a barely-watched, error-strewn, hard-hitting encounter at Murrayfield.

It was the 69th minute before the Scots could add to their 29-6 halftime lead, Gregor Townsend cutting through a massive gap to score under the posts, and the hosts did little to impress, despite their attempt at expansive play.

A brutally high tackle from blindside flanker Martin Leslie proved the main talking point of a first half in which Scottish handling errors generally prevented them from capitalising on their territorial advantage.

A Murrayfield crowd which the Scottish Rugby Union were hard-pressed to describe at numbering 10,000 could have expected far more than the four tries which they witness.  The best of the four, though, was a run from the half-way line which resulted in Glenn Metcalfe crossing the line.  Scrum-half Gary Armstrong, who had scored the second try of the match, made a break.  He passed to winger Kenny Logan who, bogged down by South American tacklers, batted it back.  Fullback Metcalfe snatched the ball from the air and, in a move that could have been described as a second movement, went over in the left corner.

Leslie scored the first five-pointer of the match, the lucky beneficiary of a maul which pushed ten yards to the line before collapsing, although replays showed that the ball may have touched the floor before the scorer.  He caused more talk, though, when his shoulder met the face of fullback Alfonso Cardoso, knocking the latter straight to the floor.  Leslie received a yellow card for his effort and will surely be dealt with severely when the citing committee meet later in the week.

Uruguay, perceived as little more than whipping boys before this tournament, put in their second battling game north of the border.  Having out-battled Spain last weekend, they came up against supposedly far superior opponents and were certainly not over-awed.  If anything, Scotland were intimidated by the brutality of the South American tackles.  Martin Leslie payed for his first half transgressions by being upended and Armstrong had to be tended to on the field after a massive hit from 20-stone Bristol tighthead Pablo Lemoine.

If Scotland hope to progress beyond the initial stages of this tournament they must improve, and quickly.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 George Graham, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Shaun Longstaff, Dave Hilton, Bryan Redpath, Robbie Russell, Peter Walton
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Doddie Weir

Uruguay:  1 Pablo Lemoine, 2 Diego Lamelas, 3 Rodrigo Sanchez, 4 Juan Carlos Bado, 5 Mario Lame, 6 Nicolas Brignoni, 7 Martin Panizza, 8 Diego Ormachea (c), 9 Federico Sciarra, 10 Diego Aguirre, 11 Pablo Costabile, 12 Martin Mendaro, 13 Pedro Vecino, 14 Juan Menchaca, 15 Alfonso Cardoso
Reserves:  Eduardo Berruti, Francisco De Los Santos, Nicolas Grille, Agustin Ponce de Leon, Fernando Sosa Diaz, Guillermo Storace, Jose Viana

Attendance:  9463
Referee:  Dickinson s

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Metcalfe G.H. 1, Armstrong G. 1, Leslie M.D. 1, Russell R.R. 1, Simpson G.L. 1, Townsend G.P.J. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 5
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1

Uruguay
Pen K.:  Aguirre D. 3, Sciarra F. 1