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gregor townsend He admitted he “can’t wait” for another success in New Zealand next weekend. scotland The team began its autumn series with an emphatic 85–0 victory over the United States.
Scots Scored 13 tries – seven in the first half and six after the break – to secure their biggest ever win at Murrayfield.
Duhan van der Merwe scored a double on his 50th cap, while Darcy Graham scored a hat-trick to join his Edinburgh colleague on 34 tries to top Scotland’s all-time scoring charts.
Jamie Dobbie also scored a treble, while Dylan Richardson, George Horne, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe and Ollie Smith got over the line as the Scots were restricted to form. all black Pushing aside their American visitors.
“Obviously we had more of the ball than we normally would against a top 10 team,” head coach Townsend said.
“I thought the effort was excellent. Of course there will be a different opponent next week, one of the top teams in the world, but what we worked on in training we brought out on the field, so it’s a good start to the campaign.
“Everyone knows the step up to be taken next week. We obviously know New Zealand are going to test us in different ways.” usa Were not able to do.”
Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks, but they beat them closely in their last two meetings under Townsend in 2017 and 2022.
“Really, I can’t wait,” Townsend said of next Saturday’s game. “We don’t get the chance to play them that often and we’ve only played them twice in my time and they were both great occasions, very good games.
“We know we have to be close to our best to win, but that’s what we’ll be working on in training this week. I thought you could tell based on the way the team prepared, even in the heavy rain on Wednesday, that there was an edge, there was more leadership coming from our players.
“The players have been putting in a lot of what we are doing in training, so it will have to be next week and we have to get the players to step up their performances in those 80 minutes.”
Townsend also revealed that he expects Glasgow forwards Xander Fagerson and Rory Darge and Northampton prop Elliott Miller to be fit after their recent injuries.
“Xander trained last week, he did everything he was asked,” Townsend said. “He played rugby on Wednesday and he was a big part of it.
“Rory had a really good session on Friday and I was watching him closely, so I think he’ll be fully cleared for training next week. And Elliott Miller Mills looks like he’ll be cleared for training next week too, so I’m hopeful we’ll have a full squad to choose from when we do that on Sunday or Monday night.”