Australia edge past Scotland in Autumn Nations opener: Scotland 15-16 Australia
It was a bitter start to this year’s Autumn Nations for Scotland as Blair Kinghorn missed a vital penalty in a narrow defeat to Australia.
Gregor Townsend had a tough job before the Autumn Nations even started due to both Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg being ineligible for the competition, this meant that the captaincy role was handed to Jamie Ritchie.
It started well for Scotland as Ollie Smith put the ball over the try line in the 11th minute. Although a penalty kick from Bernard Foley allowed the Wallabies to bring the score at half-time to 5-3 in Scotland’s favour.
In the second-half another penalty was converted by Bernard Foley in the 41st minute, making it 6-5 to Australia. However, in the 43rd minute Blair Kinghorn delivered a blow to the Wallabies by scoring both a try and converting the kick for a 12-6 lead to Scotland.
Kinghorn then got another penalty to make it 15-6 in the 54th minute.
However, the 56th minute saw Scotland’s go one man down, as Glen Young was sin binned. This allowed Australia to take advantage of their extra man with a try by James Slipper in the 61st minute. Foley successfully converted the kick after the try to bring the score to 15-13.
Australia took the lead for the second time during the game when Foley scored a penalty in the 73rd minute bringing the score to 16-15 in Australia’s favour.
Blair had a chance to win the game for Scotland as he was given a penalty kick in the 80th minute, however his kick sailed wide handing Australia the victory. It was a reversal of the game those many years ago when Scotland beat Australia by one point due to a missed penalty.
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie said: “Blair had an outstanding game and missed one kick. Everybody makes mistakes. We had opportunities to win the game beforehand so it shouldn't have come down to that. I told him to keep his head up and be proud of the way he performed."
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: "We think obviously we should win it. We've had opportunities. It made it tougher when we were a man down and conceded a couple of penalties, but I was proud of how we played. Maybe we were a bit too safe in the first half. And when you play the top teams, top defences in the world, you need to be more than just safe."
The games are coming thick and fast for Scotland as they welcome Fiji to Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon.