Individuals reach landmarks as Scotland finish tenth in Singapore

Mark Robertson scored his 100th World Series try and Scott Wight reached 500 World Series points as Scotland finished tenth in Singapore.The Scots just missed out on successive Challenge Trophy wins, beaten in the final by Wales, following three narrow defeats on Day One and two good wins at the start of day two.The National Stadium in Singapore will host the XV-a-side team for Gregor Townsend’s first game in charge against Italy this summer and the Sevens squad got a taste of the atmosphere that will greet them, with Scottish support ever present and vocal over the two days.Scotland will now return home ahead of the final tournaments of the series in Paris and London, and have been drawn against Canada, South Africa and Japan in France.Day One17-0 down at half time in their pool opener against New Zealand, Scotland rallied and tries from Mark Robertson, Jo Nayacavou and Scott Wight nearly snuck the win. The game finishing 22-21.Against the USA the game was tied up 12-12 at half time but the North Americans started the second period the strongest, keeping Scotland at arms length despite two late Jamie Farndale tries. 33-26 the final score.It was another arm wrestle against the Welsh in the final pool game and just two points were the difference as the game finished 21-19. Scotland’s tries came through Farndale, Darcy Graham and James Fleming.Day TwoDrawn against Hong Kong in the Challenge Trophy Quarter Finals, Scotland bounced back from their narrow defeats, starting day two strongly as they did the previous week.Mark Robertson scored a first half hat-trick and added a fourth in the second period as the Scots won 26-15.Next up were France, and everything was starting to stick for Scotland as they ran in five tries to win 31-12.Robertson’s try just before half time took his career try tally to 100 and Scott Wight also passed the 500 World Series points mark with a second half conversion.Scotland had the chance to redress their day one defeat to Wales in their second successive Trophy Final and started brightly with an early double from James Fleming.However, the Welsh responded, eventually wearing down the tenacious Scotland defence to score two late tries and take the Trophy with a 24-12 victory.ReactionScotland Head Coach Calum MacRae said: Although there was a lot of promise at various times over the weekend we weren’t consistent enough in our actions.”Too many times we wandered off the page and lost control of the ties.”Possession is critical and we lost composure, getting walked into touch three times against Wales in good attacking positions.”The younger players have now had a taste for the competition and will be better for some of the tough lessons given. Their best performances are where they need to pick up from the next time they are selected.”Mark Robertson hit a milestone today in scoring 100 tries. His finishing as a forward in sevens is exceptional and he has scored a number of match winners during that century. He has a few more to come for sure.”Scott Wight hitting 500 points is also a great achievement. His reading of the game and support play gets him a number of tries and he has a great kicking game.”