Adam Hastings living the dream with Scotland

Adam Hastings is keen to continue making an impact for Scotland during the Autumn TestsAdam Hastings is keen to continue making an impact for Scotland during the Autumn Tests
Adam Hastings is keen to continue making an impact for Scotland during the Autumn Tests
There were quite a few sparkling moments during Scotland's win against Fiji last weekend but one of the brightest was undoubtedly the beaming smile on Adam Hastings' face after his thrilling late try.

A slick combination with starting stand-off Finn Russell saw the Glasgow stand-off blistering over the line to mark a dream home international debut for the 22-year-old.

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“I spoke to Finn before the scrum and mentioned that it might be on for him to go short and thankfully it just opened up,” said Hastings.

“The next moment he found me on the return and I just had a nice 20 metres to take it in. It was a nice moment – I don’t score a lot of tries and usually when I do score it’s right at the line and you’re not able to 
enjoy it.

“So it was a nice moment, with my family up in the stands watching. I’ve been wanting to play at Murrayfield since I was really young so I couldn’t have asked for a dream start after only being on for ten minutes. Happy days.”

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Hastings came off the bench to slot in next to Russell, a combination which could be seen more in the future, which is something the youngster would relish. “Every good 12 is a very good talker and obviously Finn plays 10 so if he moves out to 12 he will talk a lot,” said Hastings. “It just helps you at 10, gives you more time, I don’t see why it couldn’t work.

“Having two ball players at 10 and 12, like England with George Ford and Owen Farrell, means you can swap and change, so it offers a lot of variety. It’s also good for depth, if there’s injuries as well.”

Scotland will be prepared to push the letter of the law in order to get the result they crave against the mighty Springboks at BT Murrayfield on Saturday, according to hooker Fraser Brown.

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The notoriously streetwise and physical South Africans will present a much tougher challenge than Fiji, who were despatched 54-17 at the last weekend, and Brown gave an honest assessment of how he viewed this week’s Test in a nutshell.

“They’ll try and cheat and we’ll try and cheat and whoever comes out on top will probably win,” said the Glasgow forward, who scored one try and had another disallowed at the weekend.

Brown is unfazed by the prospect of coming up against what is considered to be the most formidable forwards unit in world rugby at this moment in time.

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“It’s interesting, it’s a stat people like to pull out about the weights of the packs. It’s how you use it to be honest,” he said. “Our tactic at the weekend was to move Fiji around and try and be more clinical in areas like scrum and maul and exploit weaknesses. We’ll review South Africa and look to exploit them, whether they’ve got a big pack or not. We’re focusing hard on our own technique and tactics.”

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend was set to name his team on Wednesday, with South Africa announcing theirs Thursday.