Ewan Ashman scored a first-half hat-trick as Scotland made it two victories from two on their Americas tour, easing past the USA 42-7 at Audi Field in Washington DC.
Wing Duhan van der Merwe opened the visitors’ try account in the sixth minute before hooker Ashman’s treble sent Gregor Townsend’s troops in 28-7 ahead at the interval.
The second half dipped in quality as both teams struggled in the wet weather, with George Horne and Matt Fagerson claiming a further two crossings for Scotland.
Former Italy international centre Tommaso Boni scored the USA’s only try of the game with 32 minutes on the clock, as they came off second best to the Six Nations outfit.
As mentioned, Van der Merwe was quick off the mark to equal Stuart Hogg’s record of 27 tries for Scotland, timing his run to take Adam Hastings’ popped pass and coasting over.
Hastings converted and added the extras for each of Ashman’s treble ― all of which came at the back of rolling mauls from lineouts as they opened a healthy lead at the break.
The USA grabbed a try of their own in the midst of Ashman’s scoring spell, centre Boni going over despite prop David Ainu’u being in the sin bin for a breakdown offence just moments after the hosts had been warned for repeat infringements.
Bristol fly-half AJ MacGinty converted, but was off target with two penalty attempts.
Scotland stretched their advantage 10 minutes into the second half, scrum-half Horne racing in after getting on the end of Kyle Rowe’s break. Hastings added the conversion.
Stubborn home defence and increasing scrappiness in the testing conditions halted the scoring until Fagerson touched down six minutes from time at the back of a dominant Scottish scrum, Ross Thompson completing the scoring with the conversion.
The teams
USA: 15 Luke Carty, 14 Conner Mooneyham, 13 Tavite Lopeti, 12 Tommaso Boni, 11 Nate Augspurger, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 JP Smith, 8 Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz, 7 Paddy Ryan, 6 Sam Golla, 5 Greg Peterson, 4 Viliami Helu, 3 David Ainu’u, 2 Dylan Fawsitt, 1 Jack Iscaro
Replacements: 16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Jake Turnbull, 18 Paul Mullen, 19 Saia Uhila, 20 Ben Bonasso, 21 Ethan McVeigh, 22 Bryce Campbell, 23 Mitch Wilson
Scotland: 15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (cc), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge (cc), 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Alex Craig, 3 Murphy Walker, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Robbie Smith, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Max Williamson, 20 Luke Crosbie, 21 Jamie Dobie, 22 Ross Thompson, 23 Matt Currie
Referee: Jordan Way
Assistant Referees: Adam Leal, Robin Kaluzniak
TMO: Chris Assmus
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