Wallabies silence Scotland bagpipes

Australia too good for brave Scots

Australia pulled out a superb second-half performance to sink Scotland 42-15 in Edinburgh on Saturday to end their tour of Europe on a high note.

The scene was set for a spectacle of a match with fireworks welcoming the Scotland team out onto the Murrayfield pitch as the sounds of the traditional bagpipes were heard blowing from the stands.

It was a scene guaranteed to get any home team pumped with adrenalin, and it did for the most part of the first half, but as the game unfolded it would be the visiting team that put on a better fireworks display.

Scotland had given themselves the benefit of the doubt to end their 24 year losing run against Australia in the build up to the Edinburgh clash.

And why not?

The home team have had a sublime year thus far under the watchful eye of Scotland coach Frank Hadden, earning themselves a 100 per cent home-winning record in the process.

Australia were heading into a Murrayfield fortress with a less then impressive tour under their belts, and an angry media back home asking questions Wallaby coach John Connolly couldn't answer.

It seemed Connolly would have plenty more daggers waiting for him on his arrival back to Australia through a resounding display of attacking rugby from Scotland in the opening exchanges of the match.

Wallaby fly-half Stephen Larkham got the match underway and immediately the Scots showed what their intentions were with ball in hand.

Twice Scotland wing Simon Webster looked dangerous on attack and twice the game had to be stopped to see to an injury on the speedster.

The second occasion corresponded with a Scotland penalty from Australia being caught wandering offside after Webster did well to stretch the Wallaby defence.

Chris Paterson, Scotland skipper and fullback, had no trouble slotting a monster 40 meter kick to give his team an early lead with less than three minutes gone in the match.

It wouldn't stop there as Paterson handled another penalty to good affect, this time finding a huge touch after Nathan Sharpe was penalised in the line-out.

The winning line-out from the Scots resulted in fly-half Dan Parks putting in a huge up-and-under on the Wallaby back three.

With Chris Latham leaping for the ball at the full-back position, it would normally be assumed the Wallaby veteran had everything under control -- it wasn't to be this time round.

After some brilliant pressure from centre Marcus Di Rollo, Latham knocked the ball forward only for Parks to pick up from where he left off and send the ball out wide.

Webster took a well taken pass at immense pace, only to step inside two Australia defenders and touchdown for Scotland.

Paterson added the extras that was welcomed by a thundering round of applause from the Murrayfield locals.

Australia looked shell-shocked running back to the restart at 10-0 down after seven minutes.

They had already lost two line-outs to the big Scottish forwards, a feat that the visitors were trying to avoid leading up to the game.

Larkham's precision kicking made sure the Wallabies wouldn't be camped in their own half for much longer.

The visitors finally got some points on the board thanks to a high tackle on scrum-half Matt Giteau.

It was now the Wallaby skipper's turn to put his boot to good use as he slotted his first penalty of the match and hand his team three easy points.

As Australia's line-out woes continued, so did the Scotland scrum.

The Scot's gave up a handy attacking platform in the middle of the pitch from a Rocky Elsom forward pass.

However, the brute strength of the home team amounted to nothing as the Wallaby pack wielded the scrum 180 degrees and earn themselves the feed.

If the first scrum wasn't bad enough, Euan Murray made it even worse for his forwards by collapsing the scrum -- resulting in a huge Latham kick towards the Scotland try-line.

A decent line-out and 12 phases later found Stephen Larkham shouting for the ball after the forwards failed to bash their way over.

The Australia pivot took the responsibility on his own shoulders, brushed off a sorry excuse for a tackle by Di Rollo, and dived over by the posts.

Mortlock was able to block out the uncalled for booing by the Scotland supporters and add the simple conversion.

With the scores all tied up at 10-10, it didn't take long for the visitors to start pulling away.

A further two simple penalty kicks from the Wallaby skipper not only stretched their lead to six points, but also kept their late authority on the match in tow.

Scotland's early dominance was already starting to fizzle out before the half time whistle was even blown.

Though whilst their attacking abilities were laid to rest as the match wore on, Scotland's defence was solid as a rock.

Both Giteau and Mortlock were denied certain tries from some brilliant hard hits from the whole Scottish XV.

Any time the home team took a sniff at the Australia half, Latham would make he made up for his earlier blunder throughout the match and keep the Scottish out of his territory.

The Scotland highlight of the first half came with full-time approaching and the Wallabies camped on the Scotland tryline.

After countless attempts to hammer their way over the line, a fine display of commitment and a fine team effort saw the home team keep the visitors out and win a penalty in the process -- much to the delight of the home crowd.

Paterson put the first half to rest and left the field with everybody still stumped as to who would take top honours.

The second half started off a lot worse than the first for the Scots with Hugo Southwell involved in two silly misdemeanours.

The first was a kick that rolled over the dead ball line, resulting in a scrum all the way back in the Scotland 22.

While the second could possibly have caused his team a definite score had he not taken off so early from a Parks kick ahead, thus ruling him offside.

That penalty resulted in a huge Latham punt towards the half-way line.

The full-back was on hand once more to make a superb break up the middle of the field, Giteau took the ball up further who in turn passed inside to Larkham.  The Australia No.10 did well to get his pass away to a flying Mark Gerrard who sprinted towards the right hand corner to score.

Mortlock put in a fine kick from the right hand touchline to add the extra two points.

Gerrard couldn't believe his luck when only after a few minutes had passed, the winger found himself celebrating in the same corner.

Once again it was a great piece of midfield play that saw Mortlock this time racing up the middle of the field.  Larkham, who was having a stormer of a game, was in good support to take the ball on further before throwing a dummy to Southwell and putting Gerrard over for the wingers second try.

Mortlock must have polished his boots twice that day as the centre pulled off another faultless kick from the touchline.

The conversion put the score at 30-10 and gave the home team a big mountain to climb.

Scotland showed that they still had some fight left in them after Sean Lamont crossed over soon afterwards.

The home team had got themselves in the best position territorially wise in the second half before some great vision from Parks saw the fly-half send a cross kick towards the left touchline.

Wallaby wing Lote Tuqiri was on hand to field the ball, but slipped, resulting in Lamont picking up and strolling over untouched.

It was the last time Murrayfield were given something to cheers about as Paterson missed his conversion.

It was also the last time Australia would give Scotland any attacking opportunities as the floodgate opened up for the visitors from then on.

Their first run assault at the Scotland goal-line resulted in ref Donal Courtney going upstairs to adjudge an Al Campbell touchdown underneath a pile of bodies.

The TMO got it right saying the Test debutant had knocked on.

Campbell was denied his first try on debut, but wasn't denied a yellow card in his first Test match for the Wallabies after continues warnings from the ref.

Perhaps Campbell can feel a bit hard done by seeing as though it was his lock partner Sharpe who had copped all the previous warnings for killing the ball.

The sending off gave Scotland a glimmer of hope for a comeback with the Australia defence stretched to 14 men.

A try was on for the home team had it not been for another unforgivable mistake by Di Rollo that saw the centre fluff a pass with an overlap shouting for the ball.

Australia replied back as they know best with decisive breaks that were now becoming second hand for the visitors.

This time it was Waugh that took the ball up, tripped, got up again, ran a bit further, got tackled one meter out only for hooker Stephen Moore to stretch out and plonk the ball down next to the poles.

Mortlock continued his flawless kicking display as the clock began to wind down, as did the Scots.

At 37-15, the game was well dead and buried -- replacements came on for Australia by the minute as Connolly kindly gave his bench a final run on tour.

The frustration started to show amongst the home team as replacement prop Allan Jacobsen was given an early shower for a professional foul on his own line.

Latham rubbed further salt into Scotland's wounds by touching down on the stroke of full time.

Australia end their tour on a high while the Scots were left scratching their heads as to where it all went wrong.

Man of the match:  Simon Webster was superb on attack before he was forced off the field with an ankle injury.  Dan Parks did what he could with the small amount of ball he did get from his forwards.  For Australia, Chris Latham again put in a fine all round performance, minus his earlier blunder, of course!  Stirling Mortlock had a flawless day with the boot and was a menace in the midfield.  But after a long hard debate, we felt the award deserves to be handed to Stephen Larkham.  The Wallaby veteran put on his best performance on tour so far at fly-half by setting up countless tries whilst scoring one himself in the process.  His territorial play with the boot saved his team when they were put to the sword by a strong first half onslaught by the home team.

Moment of the match:  Scotland's early try in the opening 10 minutes would have raised a few eyebrows.  With Australia's countless breaks, it's hard to pinpoint one that stood out the most.  Perhaps the one by Stirling Mortlock that led to Mark Gerrard's second try?  In the end, the vote goes to the spirited losing team who held off a barage of attacks on their line, twelve phases in total, from the Wallaby forwards at the close of the first half.  The score was still reachable by all means at that point, and the Scots weren't going to let anyone through for all the haggis in the world.

Villain of the match:  Australia's Al Campbell didn't learn his lesson from Nathan Sharpe's hand slap and paid the price, while Scotland replacement prop Allan Jacobsen spent more time off the field than on it.  There were a few pushing and shoving moments from both teams as the frustration slowly got the better of the Scots, but no tears were shed in the process.

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Webster, Lamont
Cons:  Paterson
Pens:  Paterson

For Australia:
Tries:  Larkham, Gerrard 2, Moore, Latham
Cons:  Mortlock 5
Pens:  Mortlock  3

Yellow cards:  Al Campbell (Australia), Allan Jacobsen (Scotland)

The teams:

Scotland:  15 Chris Paterson (captain), 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Andy Henderson, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Callam, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements:  16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Alasdair Strokosch, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Phil Godman, 22 Hugo Southwell.

Australia:  15 Chris Latham, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Stirling Mortlock (captain), 12 Scott Staniforth, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 Matt Giteau, 8 David Lyons, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Al Campbell, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Wycliff Palu/Stephen Hoiles, 21 Josh Valentine, 22 Mat Rogers.

Referee:  Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa), Hugh Watkins (Wales),
Television match official:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)