Scotland reaction: 60-minute performance as Gregor Townsend notes early struggles and pinpoints key factor in win over Chile

Having chalked up big wins over Canada and the United States, the Scots made it three in a row, with a final match against Uruguay to come next Saturday.

Townsend’s side ran in eight tries, with Kyle Rowe and Jamie Dobie both getting doubles, but it was Chile who were leading by the end of the first quarter and the coach described the match only as “a pleasing 60 minutes”.

“It was a proper Test match in terms of the atmosphere and the physicality that Chile brought and the pressure that they put us under early on,” said Townsend. “But I was really pleased with how we responded and how our accuracy improved as the game went on.

“It was a new team but they gelled on the field. I thought the communication was very good. We showed our fitness in that second half. I thought the bench did well when they came on too. I felt we could have played for another 10 or 20 minutes as well so our players are looking really sharp close to the end of the season which is a credit to them and what they’ve done so far on tour too.”

Townsend made 10 changes to the team that had beaten the USA 42-7 and there were first starts for Nathan McBeth, Will Hurd and Ewan Johnson as well as a debut off the bench for Patrick Harrison. It was a particularly inexperienced pack and the front row had only four caps between them, as did the second row pairing of Johnson and Alex Craig.

Chile kept Scotland at bay in the opening stages, defending their opponents’ lineout maul which has been a potent weapon on this tour, and they took the lead through a penalty from Santiago Videla after 10 minutes. Scotland finally got some points on the board through a try from Josh Bayliss in the 21st minute, converted by Ben Healy. But Chile soon reduced the leeway with another penalty, this time from fly-half Tomas Salas.

Scotland finished the half strongly with tries from Rowe - his first for his country - and Jamie Dobie, both converted by Healy, to go in at the turn 21-6 ahead.

Chile scored a try in the second half through their Racing 92-bound sub hooker Diego Escobar but Scotland came up with five of their own. With Adam Hastings on at stand-off for Healy, they looked a more creative force and Dobie, Matt Currie, Rowe, Dylan Richardson and Kyle Rowe all touched down for the tourists. Currie, like Rowe, was scoring his first Scotland try.

Townsend was impressed with the way his backs were able to find space after the interval on a day when the Scots’ superior fitness showed.

“Matt Currie was making his debut a couple of weeks ago and today ran a couple of cracking lines, one to score a try,” said Townsend. “I thought Jamie Dobie was also very sharp on the wing and then played half an hour at scrum-half and looked very busy there and physical too. It was good our backs got more touches of the ball in the second half. I think Arron Reed didn’t get a touch in the first half but he was more involved in the second half. So it was pleasing that we left the field with everybody fit and hopefully we’ll have a good squad available for our final game next week.

“I’m really pleased for Patrick [Harrison]. He’s had to wait three weeks for his game but he’s trained really well and he showed a fair bit of what he’s been doing well in training; really accurate line-outs, strong maul carrying and really good energy in attack and defence. I was pleased for him and Javan Sebastian who came off the bench after having to wait for a few weeks.

“It was a pleasing 60 minutes of the game, especially in that second half when we went through the gears and looked really sharp. It will be a new challenge next as none of us have been to Uruguay before. They were very good in the World Cup, I was really impressed with them against France. They pushed Italy close as well. They’ve played France and Argentina recently so they’ll be battle hardened and will have a cohesive team. We’ll have a new team as we’ll have a number of players who will be leaving to head back home but the group that will be here can’t wait to play Uruguay and look to finish the season on a real high.”

Townsend will select a team of Scottish-based players only for the match in Montevideo because it falls outside the designated Test window. Having beaten Canada, the USA and now Chile by big margins, the expectation will be that Scotland complete a clean sweep next weekend.

Scorers: Chile: Tries: D Escobar. Pens: S Videla, Salas. Scotland: Tries: Bayliss, Rowe 2, Dobie 2, Currie, Richardson, Steyn. Cons: Healy 3, Hastings 3.

Chile: D Warnken; C Game, D Saavedra, S Videla, N Garafulic; T Salas, L Berti; J Carrasco, A Bohme, M Dittus, C Saavedra, J Eissmann, M Sigren, R Martínez, A Escobar.

Replacements: D Escobar, S Lues, I Gurruchaga, S Pedrero, J Milesi, M Torrealba, B Videla, J Ignacio Larenas.

Scotland: K Rowe; J Dobie, K Steyn, S Tuipulotu (S McDowall 57), A Reed; B Healy (A Hastings 56), G Warr (M Currie 56); N McBeth (J Sebastian 56), D Richardson, W Hurd (P Schoeman 56), A Craig (P Harrison 46), E Johnson, G Brown (M Williamson 59), J Ritchie (R Darge 72), J Bayliss.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (FFR).

Attendance: 24,000.