Craig hat-trick lifts gloom as Scotland fail to sparkle

Scotland 36 Fiji

It was a thoroughly convincing Scottish performance here yesterday. They kept the visitors penned into their own half from start to finish, ran in six cracking tries, and were never remotely threatened. But so much for Scottish women's team.

After the female XV's 32-3 win against Sweden in the first women's international played in a national stadium in the northern hemisphere, Ian McGeechan's men had a rather more troublesome time in completing their own bit of history.

They came within the width of the in-goal touchline of trailing to Fiji midway through the second half, before three tries in the final quarter put their third victory on successive weekends, and their first ever clean sweep of an autumn series, beyond doubt.

After the Lord Mayor's Show of their first win in 33 years against the Springboks, it was a decidedly scrappy Scottish performance. Still, with the former rugby league international Andy Craig claiming a hat-trick of tries, their coach, McGeechan, was happy enough. "We didn't quite nail it in the middle third, but I was pleased with the variety of the tries we scored," he said.

It all started so promisingly for McGeechan's side, a darting midfield break by Brendan Laney setting up Craig, via Nikki Walker's inside pass, for the opening score on the right. There were just eight minutes on the clock, but Scotland could only muster one more incisive move before half-time, Ben Hinshelwood's left-wing break paving the way for Craig's second try in the 25th minute.

The Scots only had themselves to blame for failing to exploit the sending-off of the flanker Sisa Koyamaibole to the sin-bin, for deliberately killing the ball at a ruck. And also for the ill-discipline within their own ranks that allowed Joseph Narruhn to kick the four penalties that kept the tourists in touch at half-time, with a deficit of 18-12.

Ten minutes into the second-half the gap was down to a single point. Laney's wild pass inside from the left wing was snaffled up by Setareki Tawake, the Fijian No 8, who chipped ahead for the lock Apinisa Naevo to score.

Then came the close call for the Scots as Norman Ligairi touched down in the left corner, though directly on the line in the in-goal area, which the video referee, Claudio Giacomei, correctly ruled out of bounds.

It fell to Laney to settle the Caledonian nerves, atoning for his error first with a 30-metre penalty, and then with a text-book try, looping round Townsend and diving over in the left corner.

Craig then clinched his hat-trick in the same spot with seven minutes to play and Stuart Grimes scored a breakaway try in injury time. That pair of tries came either side of Martin Leslie and the Fiji captain Greg Smith being shown yellow cards following a spat, and the try of the match, which was finished in the left corner by Ligairi after a classic Fijian counter-attack during which Waisale Serevi was twice involved.

Not that it was the most momentous try of the day. Sharon Brodie, a debutante on the right wing for Scotland's women and a student from North Berwick, became the the first member of the fairer sex to score a try at Murrayfield – 77 years after Jimmy Nelson claimed the first by a man, in Scotland's Grand Slam clincher against England in 1925.

Scotland 36
Tries: Craig 3, Laney, Grimes
Con: Laney
Pens: Laney 3

Fiji 22
Tries: Naevo, Ligairi
Pens: Narruhn 4

Half-time: 18-12 Attendance: 37,351

SCOTLAND: B Hinshelwood (Worcester); N Walker (Borders), A Craig (Orrell), B Laney (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Townsend (Borders), B Redpath (Sale, capt); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow), B Duncan (Borders), J White (Glasgow), S Grimes (Newcastle), S Taylor (Edinburgh), B Pountney (Northampton), J Petrie (Glasgow). Replacements: N Hines (Edinburgh) for White, 25; S Moffat (Glasgow) for Paterson, h-t; M Leslie (Edinburgh) for Petrie, 55; S Scott (Borders) for Bulloch, 69; G Ross (Leeds) for Townsend, 70; G Beveridge (Glasgow) for Redpath, 73.

FIJI: A Nariva (Namosi); F Lasagavibau (Northland), E Ruivadra (Dravo), S Bai (Southland); N Ligairi (Southland), J Narruhn (Hino Motors), J Rauluni (Rotherham); I Rasila (Nadroga), G Smith (Waikato, capt), B Cavubati (Wellington), A Naevo (Kaneka), S Raiwalui (Newport), S Koyambaibole (Toyota Shokki), A Mocelutu (Neath), S Naivaluwaqa (Suva). Replacements: V Satala (Harlequins) for Bai, 49; S Leawere (East Coast) for Naevo, 55, W Serevei (Mont de Marsan) for Rauluni, 72; B Gadolo (Suva) for Moceletu, 77.

Referee: M Lawrence (South Africa).