Scotland v Portugal: Second string Scots put 50 past Os Lobos as ...

Hot-stepping wing Darcy Graham equalled Duhan van der Merwe’s all-time try-scoring record for Scotland as they triumphed over Portugal 59-21 on Saturday.

The much-changed Scottish side had a strong afternoon, running in eight tries through Will Hurd, Stafford McDowall, Graham, Josh Bayliss, Jamie Bhatti, Arron Reed (2), Jamie Dobie and a penalty try while Adam Hastings kicked five conversions and Tom Jordan one.

Portugal may have been on the wrong end of the result but still scored the most points against a home nation in their history through three tries from Luka Begic, Raffaele Storti and Samuel Marques, who also kicked both conversions.

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It did not take long for the scoreboard to be active with Hurd opening the scoring with an unconverted try in the third minute.

Momentum stayed firmly with the hosts as McDowall snapped up a loose ball to score a try on his first game captaining his country. Hastings was on hand to kick the extras on this occasion.

The hosts continued to play with swagger and, although Portugal’s defence grew into the game, Scotland were handed a penalty try for an illegally collapsed maul on Os Lobos’ line in the 27th minute.

The misery continued as sustained Scottish pressure resulted in Graham skipping through for his record-equalling try six minutes later with Hastings adding the extras, as he did for Bayliss’ try just four minutes after that. However, Portugal had the final say with Begic’s converted score.

Scotland started the second period as they did the first with an early try, this time through Bhatti – his first in Test rugby. Hastings would miss the kick and next on the scoreboard was Portuguese talisman Marques who scampered over for a try he converted himself in the 54th minute.

Reed then suddenly decided to announce himself in the game with a three-minute double around the hour mark, both of which were converted by Hastings.

Portugal scored their last points of the game through a converted Storti try, but it was Scotland who had the final word with Dobie scoring his try, with man of the match Jordan kicking the conversion.

Scotland: 15 Tom Jordan, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Rory Hutchinson, 12 Stafford McDowall (c), 11 Arron Reed, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Josh Bayliss, 7 Ben Muncaster, 6 Luke Crosbie, 5 Alex Samuel, 4 Alex Craig, 3 Will Hurd, 2 Patrick Harrison, 1 Jamie Bhatti
Replacements: 16 Johnny Matthews, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Ewan Johnson, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Jamie Dobie, 22 Matt Currie, 23 Kyle Rowe

Portugal: 15 Simao Bento, 14 Raffaele Storti, 13 Jose Lima, 12 Tomas Appleton, 11 Lucas Martins, 10 Domingos Cabral, 9 Samuel Marques, 8 Frederico Couto, 7 Nicolas Martins, 6 Andre da Cunha, 5 Duarte Torgal, 4 Jose Madeira, 3 Diogo Hasse Ferreira, 2 Luka Begic, 1 David Costa
Replacements: 16 Abel da Cunha, 17 Pedro Vicente, 18 Antonio Prim, 19 Antonio Rebelo de Andrade, 20 Vasco Baptista, 21 Antonio Campos, 22 Hugo Aubry, 23 Manuel Cardoso Pinto

Referee: Takehito Namekawa (JRFU)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (RFU), Anthony Woodthorpe (RFU)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)

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