What Scotland got out of contentious Americas tour and the Duhan van der Merwe 'people don't see'

The Edinburgh player claimed his 28th score in just 41 appearances in Saturday night’s 31-19 win over Uruguay in Montevideo, moving one ahead of Stuart Hogg.

Townsend hailed that achievement but also revealed that van der Merwe’s success was built on hard work on the training ground where the South African-born back is consistently one of the leading performers and a defensive leader.

The Scotland head coach believes van der Merwe – who is 29 years old – will go on to extend his record but will be pushed all the way by team-mate Darcy Graham – on 24 international tries – and others like Kyle Steyn and Huw Jones.

Townsend said: “Duhan is someone we probably see differently than people on the outside. He’s part of our defence leadership group and trains consistently well – he often tops the charts in terms of high-speed metres and the amount of effort he puts in at training.

“You don’t get that sort of try-scoring record if you are not someone who works hard for the team, if you are just hanging on the wing waiting for the game to come to you.

“He works really hard to get in those positions. He is obviously very competitive and wants to beat the person in front of him, and then can show his strength to finish.

“We just love him for the player he is but also the person he is. He’s integrated with the squad, doesn’t take himself too seriously and he’s easy to get on with.

“And I have to say: what an achievement to break this record! I remember when I was playing, Tony Stanger jointly held it with Ian Smith from the 1920s, so that shows how hard it has been to break.

“Then Hoggy broke it, now Duhan is breaking it, and we have guys in our squad like Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones and Darcy Graham who obviously missed last season through injury hot on his heels.

“So, it is really exciting that we have guys with great try-scoring records who can maybe challenge Duhan but I am sure Duhan is going to extend that record over the next few seasons.”

Scotland struggled for long spells against Uruguay before breaking clear towards the end but Townsend felt it was an important test for the group in the final match of the Americas tour.

He added: “We hadn’t really had that test on tour when in the second half a team is looking like they can go on and win so we have to respond - so I am really pleased with how we coped with that aspect.

“Yes, there were a few areas where we could have finished things off better and our discipline could be better, but to come back and win this game was good for this group.”

The merits of playing four matches against Tier Two nations have been questioned but Townsend felt it had been a useful exercise in learning about individuals as much as the collective after handing 11 players their Scotland debuts.

He added: “I suppose there are two different strands. As a team, there’s learning about the game we are trying to put in place – but that is more dependent on opposition and what they are doing.

“I also think we’ve learned more about individuals – players we have never worked with before, players who have never played Test rugby before. So we’ve seen how they train and how they have improved in training over the last four or five weeks.

“Then everyone gets to see the players in two, three, or sometimes four Test matches. That has been the most positive outcome of the tour – that we are creating more depth in certain positions because we have players who are coming through at a younger level to challenge the more established players.

“So, I’d really hope and expect that this experience will give them the motivation and learning that they can kick on again next season and really challenge for the team which plays South Africa [in the autumn].”