Van der Merwe record as Scotland survive Uruguay scare
Scotland secure their fourth win in a row on foreign soil for the first time since 1927 – but are unconvincing 31-19 winners in Uruguay.
This video can not be played
To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Uruguay (14) 19
Tries: S Alvarez, Etcheverry, Diana Con: Etcheverry 2
Scotland (19) 31
Tries: Ashman, Crosbie, Van der Merwe, Harrison, Schoeman Con: Healy 2, Hastings
Duhan van der Merwe becoming Scotland’s record try scorer after only 41 games was hailed as “an amazing achievement” as he helped Scotland round off their Americas Tour with victory over Uruguay
Scotland achieved a fourth win in a row on foreign soil for the first time since 1927, but it was achieved in unconvincing style in Montevideo.
Tries from Ewan Ashman, Luke Crosbie and Duhan van der Merwe – his 28th for Scotland – gave Gregor Townsend’s side a comfortable early lead.
But tries from Santiago Alvarez and Filipe Etcheverry brought Uruguay to within five points at the break.
The hosts levelled after Manuel Diana crossed, only for the Scots to respond swiftly through Patrick Harrison and Pierre Schoeman to ease fears of a shock defeat.
Townsend admitted “it probably wasn’t as free-flowing a game as we’ve had on tour” but was full of praise for Van der Merwe.
“He didn’t get as many touches, but he finished his try well,” he said. “We’re all delighted for him and it’s an amazing achievement in such a short space of time and now he can kick on and score more tries in the future.”
Both sides went into the game short of full strength, with Scotland fielding a side almost exclusively made up of Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors players, while the hosts were missing some key performers who are in their Olympics Sevens squad.
It was Uruguay, smarting from last weekend’s heavy loss to Argentina, who came out the blocks faster.
They should have made early pressure tell, but fly-half Etcheverry pushed his penalty wide from an inviting position.
The Scots made them pay almost immediately, after Ben Healy’s monster kick from his own 22 took his side deep into the home half.
With his second touch from the resulting rolling maul, Ashman dived over and Healy added the extras off the tee.
Uruguay suffered a quickfire triple blow as Juan Bautista Hontou was forced out of the game with a knee injury, Diego Arbelo was sent to the sin bin and Matt Fagerson put flanker Crosbie through for Scotland’s second try.
Healy knocked over a simple conversion and Van der Merwe was soon touching down in the corner for his record-breaking try – the winger moving one ahead of Stuart Hogg after just 41 caps.
A loose Healy pass helped Uruguay back into the game as Alvarez cruised in under the posts before Etcheverry went over from close range and added his second conversion to make the score 19-14 at the break.
Diana burrowed over to draw the hosts level and only the latest of a series of missed kicks from Etcheverry prevented Uruguay taking a surprise lead.
That spurred Scotland into action and on the back of rolling mauls Harrison, with his first international try in his second appearance, and Schoeman went over and Healy added the conversions to restore their advantage.
That was enough to ensure Townsend’s side added to previous tour victories against Canada, United States and Chile at the end of a long season against a side who have now lost six of their latest seven outings.
Uruguay: I Alvarez, Bautista Hontou, Alonso, Inciarte, Freitas, Etcheverry, S Alvarez, Peculo, Pujadas, Arbelo, Aliaga, Leindekar Virginio, Ardao, Bianchi, Deus.
Replacements: Gini for Bautista Hontou (20). Not Used: Myszka, Sanguinetti, Piussi, Magno, Civetta, Diana, Suarez. Sin Bin: Arbelo (23).
Scotland: Paterson, Rowe, Jones, McDowall, Van Der Merwe, Healy, Horne, Sutherland, Ashman, Sebastian, Williamson, G. Brown, Crosbie, Darge, M. Fagerson.
Replacements: Steyn for Rowe (54), Hastings for Healy (54), Dobie for Horne (62), Schoeman for Sutherland (54), Harrison for Ashman (62), Walker for Sebastian (54), Johnson for G. Brown (69), Ritchie for Crosbie (62).
What they said
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend: “It was a real challenge for us. Uruguay came with a lot of physicality and they were winning penalties and put us under pressure.
“This has been our biggest test and that’s one of the reasons we came here – to see how this team reacts when they’re under pressure, and they came through, so we’re very proud of them.”
