Scotland v Australia, Autumn Tests 2017 – match preview

Australia scouting report

• Reasonable results
  Since playing Scotland the Australians have only lost to New Zealand (who they also managed to beat at the third time of asking) and England. For the whole of 2017 they have 7 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats in a congested international calendar. They were averaging 34 points a game until the England match, notching 55 tries in the process. With Scotland also strong in attack this has the potential to be a free-flowing, high-scoring contest.
• Dodgy discipline
  Aussie indiscipline has made their lives difficult so far in their matches in the UK. They have conceded 30 penalties + free kicks along with 3 yellow cards in their 2 games so far on their European tour.
• Fijian flavour
  There is definitely a Pacific Island influence to the Australian backline from the Fijian-born trio of Kerevi, Kuridrani and Koroibete. After Scotland’s struggles in Suva they need to be far more aggressive in defence against players who not only have the power and pace to make ground but also the passing skills to keep the ball alive.
• Defensive doubts
  While everyone in the Aussie backline looks great with ball in hand their defence is maybe not at the same level. The backs have missed 16 tackles so far against Wales and England and they can be exposed from setpieces and turnover ball.
• Danger man
  Kurtley Beale will constantly be inserting himself into the line and acting as a second playmaker. His 37 involvements against England (9 kicks, 14 passes, 14 runs) weren’t far off Bernard Foley’s 48 at fly half.

Previous meetings at Murrayfield

• The two nations have met 18 times before in Scotland with 17 of those games at Murrayfield (the odd one out was held at Hampden in 2004).
• Starting in 1927 Scotland won 6 of the first 7 matches but since then Australia have dominated only losing once, in 2009, on their travels to Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• With the recent victory in Sydney added to another in a Newcastle monsoon in 2012, Scotland actually have more wins against Australia in Australia than they do at home during the last 35 years.

Last meeting 12th November 2016:

Scotland 22 – 23 Australia

20 of the players included in the match day 23s for that last encounter will not be involved this time around. In fact to illustrate how quickly things change in Test rugby with form, injuries and player development all to the fore just 10 of the 30 players who started the two sides’ most recent meeting 5 months ago will start again in Saturday’s match (6 Scots and 4 Aussies).

Officials:

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant 1: JP Doyle (England)
Assistant 2: David Wilkinson (Ireland)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)

Scotland, and in particular their back rowers, have had a somewhat fractious relationship of late with M. Gauzere. John Barclay and Alex Dunbar saw yellow against Ireland in 2016. Barclay was off again when Italy visited Murrayfield earlier this year. It was Josh Strauss’ turn to visit the sin bin when the French whistler took charge of Scotland’s defeat to Fiji over the summer.

On the other side of the coin of course, as noted above, Australia are no angels when it comes to discipline. In fact their skipper, Michael Hooper, has amassed more yellow cards than any other player in Test rugby having been sin binned against both Wales and England this Autumn. He will need to balance losing out on the some of the benefits of his all action, high involvement style or facing the potential cost of incurring the wrath of M. Gauzere…

Picture credit – Adrian Henry. For more of Adrian’s excellent pictures from all levels of Scottish rugby check out rugbypeople.net