Samoa 3 Scotland 38

Coach Matt Williams experienced his first Test win at the helm of Scotland, after his charges thumped Samoa 38-3 at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington.  The win will undoubtedly do wonders for the tourists confidence ahead of their first Test against Australia next weekend.

Going into the match Scotland had won just three of their last 12 Test matches and in 2004 the struggling Scots had failed to win a match.  Their tour of Australia got off to a dismal start with a 41-5 loss against the Queensland Reds -- Australia's weakest Super 12 franchise -- while a win against the largely amateur NSW Cockatoos in a mid-week clash was hardly worthy of praise.

But against Samoa the Scots showed the type of resolve that has been lacking in past performances and their defence in particular showed a great deal of improvement.

It was Samoa who took the lead early with a penalty by fly-half Roger Warren and his boot put the hosts in control in the opening exchanges.

But the visitors were soon on the attack and by the break they were in control.

Two penalties by fullback Chris Paterson and a try to fly-half Gordon Ross shortly before half-time saw Scotland lead 11-3 going into the second-half.

The visitors kicked into second gear immediately after the restart when prop Bruce Douglas was stopped just short of the line, but Ross found centre Ben Hinshelwood out wide and the latter went over for his maiden Test try.

Paterson failed with the conversion, but he soon made amends by slotting his third penalty to put his side 19-3 ahead.

Scotland began to turn the screws starting with a half-break by Debutant winger Sean Lamont, flanker Donnie MacFayden then drove it forward before talented loose forward Ali Hogg was bustled over for Scotland's third of the match.

Samoa began to fall off the pace as the Scots had the game all but won -- Williams began to send the reserves on and replacement fly-half Dan Parks sent winger Simon Webster over in the corner with six-minutes remaining.

Edinburgh scrum-half Mike Blair, who had replaced Chris Cusiter, then compounded the Samoans' misery as he broke from the base of a ruck -- adding salt to bleeding wounds -- to run in a try in the final minute of the game.

The win will undoubtedly do wonders for the team's morale -- Scotland have been waiting for eight months for a Test victory -- and for the moment Williams can enjoy the fruits of his labour and sweet taste of success.

But with Australia just around the corner the former Leinster coach cannot afford to bask in the glory for too long.

The Teams:

Samoa:  1 Tamato Leupolu, 2 Jonathan Meredith, 3 Kas Lealamanu'a, 4 Leo Lafaiali'i, 5 Opeta Palepoi, 6 Ulia Ulia, 7 Siaosi Vaili, 8 Semo Sititi (c), 9 Steven So'oialo, 10 Roger Warren, 11 Lome Fa'atau, 12 Brian Lima, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 14 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 15 Tanner Vili
Reserves:  Simon Lemalu, David Lemi, John Senio, Kitiona Viliamu, Michael Von Dincklage
Unused:  Mussolini Schuster, Loleni Tafunai

Scotland:  1 Bruce Douglas, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Donnie Macfadyen, 7 Jason White, 8 Allister Hogg, 9 Chris Cusiter, 10 Gordon Ross, 11 Simon Webster, 12 Andrew Henderson, 13 Ben Hinshelwood, 14 Sean Lamont, 15 Chris Paterson (c)
Reserves:  Michael Blair, Iain Fullarton, Daniel Parks, Jon Petrie, Craig Smith, Hugo Southwell, Stephen Scott

Attendance:  13000
Referee:  Deaker k.

Points Scorers:

Samoa
Pen K.:  Warren R. 1

Scotland
Tries:  Hinshelwood B.G. 1, Webster S. 1, Ross G. 1, Hogg A. 1, Blair M.R.L. 1
Conv:  Paterson C.D. 1, Parks D.A. 1
Pen K.:  Paterson C.D. 3