By Jack Meney

It has been an eventful international campaign for the Scottish rugby team, with three games played and a big friendly against Australia coming up this weekend. The game against the Aussies, although it is a friendly, has been billed as a crunch match which could seriously affect the image of the Scottish national team.

The campaign kicked off with a win against Fiji. After this, Scotland were then challenged with a home game against current world champions South Africa. The game was always going to be a tough one against the Springboks, but things were made much harder with Scott Cummings receiving a 20-minute red card early on in the match.

It was a tightly contested first half, with three South Africa tries [two which were converted], while Finn Russell scored three penalties for Scotland. The home side failed to score any tries in the second half but managed two penalties. South Africa continued their dominance with another converted try and two penalty goals.

Finn Russell against South Africa by David Rogers via Gettyimages

Scotland were able to retain a bit of possession during part of the match and managed to attack the Springboks from all angles. Despite this, they were still unable to cross their opponents’ line. Not taking their chances cost them as South Africa took advantage and overwhelmed the Scots. The game finished 15-32.

Scotland’s game against Portugal was an opportunity to lift the spirits of the team but it was important that they did not under estimate “The Wolves”.

The first half was explosive, when Will Hurd opened the scoring, with a try in the first five minutes. This was then followed by three converted tries and a penalty try, in the first half. Portugal were able to pick up a converted try at the end of the half to spur them on for the 40 minutes to come.

The second period was a competitive one with a score of 26-14. Portugal fought hard in this test match, but a new look Scotland team dealt with their threat and offered plenty going forward. Although the performance from the Scots was not quite as clean as hoped for, the team were still able to win 59-21, with Tom Jordan picking up the MOTM award.

Two games down, one to go, with a tough match against Australia next on the cards for the Scots. The Wallabies are always going to put up a fight, so this game is seen as a good opportunity to improve the image of the Scottish national team after that loss to South Africa.

The winner of the game will receive the Hopetoun cup [being named after the former Governor-General of Australia who was a Scotsman] and the Aussies will be looking to retain the cup after they beat the Scots in 2022.

Australia's James Slipper holding the Hopetoun Cup in 2022 by Mark Runnacles via Gettyimages

Scotland will be looking to build on the momentum gained from their last game and Australia have had a tough year so a win could be possible. This being said, they might be on the other side of that rough spot as they have just won against Wales and England.

Player Huw Jones said: “The South Africa game was disappointing, but we’ve got to nail it this weekend against Australia.”

This fixture is obviously an important one for all involved with the having to prove themselves.

It will be interesting to see how the game plays out and a win would definitely make the Scottish team look a lot stronger. They will just need to tighten things up so they can compete with the teams above them in the rankings.

Round-up of Scotland's autumn test matches