Scotland kicked off their autumn series with an eventful, entertaining and ultimately handsome win over Fiji at Murrayfield, with returning hero Darcy Graham scoring FOUR tries – before Duhan van der Merwe touched down to break his own record as Scotland’s all-time leading try scorer in the closing stages of a 57-17 win. Gregor Townsend’s team, who face South Africa, Portugal and Australia over the coming three weeks, built on a blistering opening burst to score eight tries in running up a half century, and then some, on home soil.
Against a Fiji side missing a handful of top talents for a test falling just the wrong side of the official international window, Townsend’s men raced into a 26-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes. True, they were helped by the visitors going down to 14 and then 13 men, yellow cards for Frank Lomani and Apisalone Vota creating the sorts of gaps that any decent side should exploit.
But the Scots didn’t blink when presented with the opportunity, as Kyle Rowe, Graham (twice)and Huw Jones all crossed the line to touch down. Adam Hastings converted three of the four tries to compound the punishment.
Once they got 15 men back on the pitch, it must be said, Fiji didn’t look half bad. And they were rewarded for a sustained phase of pressure on the Scottish line when Ewan Ashman – who had already seen a try disallowed for Pierre Schoeman doing a grand impression of an NFL-style offensive lineman – was yellow carded for repeat infringements by the defending team, who were then unable to stop Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula going over.
A Hastings penalty made it 29-5 before the break, while the loss of try scorer Rowe after a painful looking hit saw Tom Jordan come off the bench for his debut. With the clock five minutes into the red before the interval, Meli Derenalagi dived over to make it 29-10.
The Fijians put themselves right back in it with a third try early in the second half, captain Tevita Ikanivere selling Graham a spectacular dummy to touch down in the left corner. But a third missed conversion kept the gap to 14 points. And Graham, if he was feeling any embarrassment at being so easily side-stepped by one of the chunky boys in the opposition, made quick amends with a third try of his own, the Hastings conversion putting Scotland in a 36-17 lead.
Graham bagged a fourth try for himself just before being replaced, the angle and speed of his finishing run in from the left capping a brilliant individual performance that took him to 28 tries for Scotland. Tied with Duhan. But not for long.
The behind-the-back pass from Hastings in the build-up to Van der Merwe’s record-breaking try was stunning. The assist from Jones was pretty decent, too. But the glory belonged to the left winger who has set such a ferocious scoring pace in Scottish blue.
There was still time for Jones to bag his second try, courtesy of a raking cross-field kick from Hastings. And for Van der Merwe to see a second ruled out after the 80 minutes were up.

1. 1 Pierre Schoeman 7/10
Edinburgh Rugby prop turned in a solid 48 minutes before making way. | SNS Group

2. 2 Ewan Ashman 6/10
Edinburgh hooker saw an early try disallowed and was sin binned just before Fiji scored to make a minor dent in Scotland’s early lead. Lucky not to see a second yellow just before being replaced early in the second half. | SNS Group

3. 3 Zander Fagerson 7/10
Glasgow prop missed some training for personal reasons during the week. Turned up and fronted up. | SNS Group / SRU

4. 4 Grant Gilchrist 7/10
Second row was excellent at the lineout and did a lot of the unseen work. | SNS Group