Magnificent Defence Sees Scotland Retain Hopetoun Cup

Australia 6-9 Scotland Scotland recorded back-to-back victories over Australia and posted their first win in these parts in 30 years with a heroic defensive rearguard in the foulest weather in Newcastle, New South Wales tonight. The result means that the baggage manifest for the flight home later this month will include the Hopetoun Cup, not a bad bit of glassware, which will be heading back to the Murrayfield trophy cabinet. Greig Laidlaw, the Scots’ stand-off might well have been slotting his stoppage time kick at Lothian Park in Jedburgh where he learned the basics at Jed Thistle, such was the coolness with which he did the business with the winning penalty.   “It was probably the toughest kick in front of the posts I’ve ever had,” he said amid the scenes of joy in the Scotland changing room.  “Hats off to Euan Murray and the boys in the scrum; that was for them!” You can hear his reaction here: Greig’s a straight-forward soul you understand and it was important that he maintained his routine as his third success in four attempts cemented the visitors’ triumph.  While monumental celebrations were being unleashed, Laidlaw calmly collected his kicking tee before joining in.  Quite Corinthian! In the yahoo, there was a clash of heads between Joe Ansbro and Alasdair Strokosch.  Both were treated by the Scotland medical team but were able to return to the changing room having been stitched. A storm, with the hint of Antarctic venom, had battered the Hunter Stadium, but it could make no impression on Scotland’s unyielding spirit tonight.  What an achievement for the players, with special plaudits to debutant Ryan Grant and first start Matt Scott, alongside the stellar back-row of Strokosch, John Barclay and Ross Rennie. The pain of wet weather defeats in Wellington and Auckland in the past year dissolved as it was the Wallabies, ranked number two in the world, remember who once again could not combat the combination of elements and ankle-snapping tackling. The result could well lift Scotland back into the top ten in the world rankings and it brought to an end a run of seven successive defeats. For head coach Andy Robinson it was a special night.  Once again, just as they had against the Wallabies and the Boks back at Murrayfield, and as they had in Tucuman and Mar del Plata two years ago, the team embodied what the head coach is all about. “What a fantastic performance,” he enthused.  “To do what we did on our line in that second-half was huge.” You can hear more of Andy’s interview here: Australia had recovered from a 6-0 deficit to go in trailing by three points at half-time and a tame penalty early in the second-half – by which point Tom Brown was winning his first cap as a replacement for the injured Sean Lamont (ribs) – saw Mike Harris goal to level the scores. Australia were playing with the wind advantage at this point and, as they had found when on the receiving end in the first-half, it was an exceptionally complex business for the Scots to engineer an escape from their own 22. The Wallabies huffed and puffed and were labelled one-dimensional by their own scribes, which, in the conditions, was unfair.  They did try to vary the close-quarter pick and goes, on one occasion, Berrick Barnes fired a diagonal kick for Digby Ioane but Brown and Stuart Hogg were alert to the chance. The clock ticked on and when Scotland got a sniff when a Wallabies kick went beyond the dead ball line, they found that ruthlessness that Robinson has demanded. Two pulverising, advancing scrums with the hooter having sounded – and the Wallabies penalised at the second of them – saw Laidlaw in best “cometh the hour, cometh the man” style crown a memorable night. The Hunter region has built up a formidable reputation for its wine and the vocal Scottish support had every reason to enjoy a tipple.