Lang kicks Scotland to victory

Rugby Union

Bay of Plenty 31 Scotland 35

Scotland may have carved out a nail-biting victory in Rotorua yesterday but their coach, Richie Dixon, admitted his side had plenty of preparation to do before the second Test against New Zealand.

"Our commitment was good to start with but we allowed them to dictate the middle part of the game," Dixon said. "We have a lot of things to work on with a number of the young players."

A strong finish and accurate goal-kicking by Stuart Lang, the full-back, saw the Scots home in their penultimate tour match as clouds of volcanic ash floated from the direction of the recently erupted Mount Ruapehu.

Dixon watched his side recover from 31-22 down going into the last quarter - before a try by the scrum-half, Andy Nicol, turned the tide - but he insisted: "The players stuck to their task and got the points."

The telling contribution for the Scots, though, came from Lang, whose three successful kicks at goal won the game.

The 6ft 5in full-back, who had earlier made a try-saving tackle, took over from stand-off Craig Chalmers after the Melrose player had endured a dismal afternoon with his goal-kicking. Lang's conversion of Nicol's try and two penalty goals in the last 10 minutes gave the Scots their win.

Scotland built an advantage with wing Derek Stark running in a hat-trick of tries, before Bay made them battle.

The Scots, beaten 62-31 by the All Blacks in the Dunedin first Test last weekend, will attempt to seek their revenge in Auckland on Saturday.

Bay of Plenty: Tries Edwards, McMillan, Spanhake, Timani; Conversions Miller; Penalties Miller 3. Scotland: Tries Stark 3, Nicol 2; Conversions Chalmers, Lang; Penalties Lang 2.

BAY OF PLENTY: D Kaui; G Tamani, J Spanhake, W Clarke, B Daniel; A Miller, J Tauiwi; C McMillan, B Sinkinson, P Tupai, M Camp, S Axtens, P Cook, J Edwards, S Simpkins.

SCOTLAND: S Lang (Kelso); C Glasgow (Heriot's FP), A Stanger (Hawick), R Eriksson (London Scottish), D Stark (Boroughmuir); C Chalmers (Melrose), A Nicol (Bath); T Smith (Watsonians), G Ellis (Currie), B Stewart (Edinburgh Acad), S Campbell (Dundee HSFP), S Murray (Edinburgh Acad), P Walton (Newcastle), B Renwick (Hawick), N Broughton (Melrose). Replacements: C Joiner (Melrose), G Townsend (Northampton), G Armstrong (Newcastle), G Weir (Newcastle), D Hilton (Bath), K McKenzie (Stirling Co).