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Sun 13 Nov 2016 | 11:34
Kuridrani scores late try as Australia break Scotland hearts again

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Comments

A Tevita Kuridrani try three minutes from time gave Australia a narrow 23-22 win over Scotland at BT Murrayfield on Saturday.

Scotland were dominant throughout an absorbing first half and led 17-10 at the break thanks to two tries from Huw Jones on his first home appearance. 

The hosts added a third in the second half through Jonny Gray but Australia fought back with a try from Reece Hodge and three Bernard Foley penalties.

Despite losing Will Skelton to the sin-bin, Kuridrani was able to end minutes of pressure to grab the match-winning try in the final stages.

Undoubtedly the talk of the match was the performance of Jones, earning just his second cap for his country. The Stormers centre scored his first try after an inch-perfect chip ahead from Finn Russell after eight minutes and showed exceptional pace to sprint towards the line to touch down.

But if Scotland profited from a bit of Russell genius, Foley was his equal and played a key role in Reece Hodge's superb set-piece score. The out-half wrapped around nicely with Israel Folau. What was even better was the interaction with Dane Haylett-Petty, who had come off his right wing to give a sumptuous offload to the on-rushing Hodge to set the cente free to the line.

It was nip and tuck the whole game and while Scotland will be ruing another one point defeat to the Aussies, the 23-22 result was probably a fair result given the Scots' second half indiscipline.

Head coach Vern Cotter was pensive in defeat and spoke of a lack of luck at crucial moments: "I'm incredibly proud of the way the players played that game. There are things we can and can't control and we'll focus on the things we can.

"I just think we didn't get the rub of the green at times.

"There were eight penalties against us in the second half and only two for us; there were a number of things. But that is something we can't focus on."

Watch full match highlights (12:55) below:

Posted By: Stephen Brunsdon

4 Comments

  • drg
    1:22 PM 14/11/2016

    Cheers for the info Jimmy. It's hard to tell sometimes from highlights and from media outlets, especially as even when teams are poor they can produce a couple good highlight moments.

    I hope Scotland really do improve, for their sake, and hopefully long before all the current boys in blue retire... Would hate to see them hit their peak just as most of them come up for retirement!

    Cheers again.

  • jimmy23
    1:06 PM 14/11/2016

    Was at Murrayfield myself! Scotland looked great in attack, especially in the first half and I honestly thought they were going to get revenge for last year if they kept it up. Australia managed some nice tries in the first half as well though so I don't think it was a case of Australia finding their feet later on.

    Unfortunately, all but the entirety of the second half was spent in the Scottish half and Australia eventually ground down the staunch defence to pip a try at the end. Scotland would definitely feel hard done by, especially as Laidlaw had missed the conversion that could have won it, but I'd say it was as close as the scoreline suggests.

  • drg
    10:45 AM 14/11/2016

    Unfortunately missed the match. What does the scoreline really say?

    We're Scotland a team to contend with? Or did a tired Australian team falter at the start then find their feet?

    The usual trend for Autumn/Summer internationals is to mention that the visiting team is tired, but I've not heard that this year.

    I'd like to think for rugby sense, that the NH v SH gap isn't as vast as it once was and I'd hope Scotland do become decent contenders in any match.. I tire of the 'we were nearly there, next time' statements. Best of luck to all teams in their next games!

  • stroudos
    10:05 AM 14/11/2016

    Abject failure on Friday night (football) to glorious failure on Saturday. A tremendous uptick in fortunes for Scotland and about as good as it gets I reckon.

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