This has been another tumultuous season for Scotland, making it entirely fitting that their final outing would turn out to be similarly helter-skelter.
Gregor Townsend’s men finally saw off Fiji to add another Nations Championship win to their tally but they didn’t get things their own way until the final quarter of the contest when the Fijians wilted and Scotland, belatedly, ran out comfortable victors.
The scoreline and try count — five to three in Scotland’s favour — tells only part of the story, with Fiji ahead at half-time as Scotland toiled for inspiration.
It was the bench who ultimately made the difference, Pierre Schoeman, Scott Cummings and Jamie Dobie (twice) all scoring after being summoned to breathe fresh life into a flagging performance.
The final outcome was perhaps harsh on Fiji, who fought hard for long spells in front of an impressive 55,215-strong crowd in what was nominally their home game.
The win, though, at least ensured Scotland ended this chaotic campaign on a high. From the lows of the autumn defeats to Argentina and the All Blacks to Six Nations wins over France and England, Townsend and his players can now head into their summer break in a positive frame of mind after a strong couple of weeks.
Jamie Dobie scores one of his two tries on a day when Scotland’s second string failed to shine
Fiji’s ‘reward’ for being invited to participate in the Nations Championship is a requirement to play their matches thousands of miles from their traditional base. That meant a few tweaks to the traditional Murrayfield experience. A Fijian choir rather than a pipe band welcomed the teams, while food and drink vendors offered a flavour of the South Pacific from mini thatched ‘bure’ houses.
Scotland elected not to hand over the home dressing room but the poverty of their first-half display was very much in keeping with their usual away day experiences against Fiji.
Townsend had insisted there was no risk in making 14 changes to his starting line-up, believing there was enough depth in his squad to cope with whatever Fiji could throw at them.
Come the break, however, the head coach might have been reappraising that situation. By that point Fiji had run in three tries to Scotland’s one, while also proving far more robust in defence than they had been against England just a week previously.
Townsend had praised his players for their attacking efficiency against Argentina but it was the opposite case here as they butchered openings or were simply stopped in their tracks by the herculean Fijian defence.
Scotland got on the board first when Jonny Gray hustled over despite having a defender hanging from his neck but it would prove to be a false dawn. Within five error-strewn minutes they were behind. They botched the kick-off return, gifting Fiji a penalty that they kicked to the corner. That got the maul motoring and there was no stopping Tevita Ikanavere who powered over.
Fiji players try to take stock of a ‘home’ victory that eluded them after a brave performance
The Scottish pack, in contrast, could get little go-forward from their own maul efforts, even with backs piling in to try to lend additional ballast.
Worse was to follow for Scotland as Fiji ran in a second try just moments later. Some sloppy play was mopped up by Josua Tuisova — the midfielder nicknamed The Bus — who motored down the field before feeding Selestino Ravutaumada.
The winger unleashed a clever grubber kick, gathering the ball and then almost falling over the line for the try. Scotland needed something going in their favour and it seemed to arrive when Lekima Tagitagivalu made head-on-head contact on George Horne. That earned the flanker a yellow card but Scotland couldn’t capitalise.
Gregor Hiddleston was repelled following a neat line-out move before Ollie Smith — wearing a gold No 13 on his back in tribute to Scott Hastings — also couldn’t pick a path through as Fiji won a scrum to ease the danger to the delight of their increasingly vocal support.
When Tom Jordan then knocked on to bring another promising move to a shuddering halt, you began to wonder whether this maybe wasn’t going to be Scotland’s day. Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe, Scotland’s record try scorers, were restored to the lineup but struggled to make much of an impact, although van der Merwe was belatedly more prominent in the second half.
Scotland’s cause would get worse when they shipped a soft third try before half-time. It was the simplest of scores from Fiji’s perspective, Elia Canakaivata strolling through unopposed from the base of the ruck before sealing the try with a spectacular flying flourish over the line.
Scott Cummings crashes over for Scotland’s fifth try to provide a bit of comfort at last
Scotland trailed by 10 points at half-time and needed some sort of response in the second period. But instead it was more of the same for a while, plenty of possession but no cutting edge or sufficient power to break down the white-shirted warriors in front of them.
Townsend had stocked his bench with experienced figures in case this sort of scenario arose and duly broke the emergency glass. And it was one of the replacements, Schoeman, who dragged Scotland back into it as he stretched for the line to reduce the deficit.
The Scotland fans finally found their voices and thought they had a third try to cheer only for Josh Bayliss to spill the ball on the line. That go-ahead score, however, wasn’t far away and it went to another substitute when Dobie crept under a glut of bodies to get the ball down.
Fiji’s fire was now well and truly doused and two more late tries made sure of Scottish victory. The first went the way of Cummings, another who made his mark off the bench, before Dobie claimed his second after van der Merwe had fetched a high ball out of the sky before feeding Bayliss who helped it on.
