'This is your playground' - Scotland skipper's message inspired Darcy to 'go crazy' in Fiji thumping

Let’s not worry about the Springboks just yet. There’s plenty of time to work ourselves into a panic before Sunday’s head-on collision with a side “playing a different brand of footy to most teams”, to quote Fiji coach – and former All Black - Mick Byrne.

For now, Scotland have earned the right to enjoy the spoils of a handsome victory. You can only beat the opposition in front of you. And, with the exception of about 20 minutes at Murrayfield yesterday, Gregor Townsend’s men did the expected, the predicted and the demanded against a touring Fiji side who struggled to keep up. The final tally of 57-17 did NOT flatter the home side.

So savour the achievement of Duhan van der Merwe continuing to extend his tally as Scotland’s all-time record try scorer. Celebrate Darcy Graham’s frankly ridiculous four-try performance – and hope the head knock he suffered in the act of completing that quartet of touchdowns doesn’t have too many lasting effects.

Talking points from yesterday? As you’d expect from a game with ELEVEN tries scored, there were a few.

Darcy’s happy place

“This is your playground.” That was what new Scotland skipper Sione Tuipolutu told Darcy Graham before yesterday’s match. Pretty inspirational words, as it turned out.

Tuipolutu revealed: “I'm super happy for him. Gregor (Townsend, head coach) usually does the last message, I suppose, when we rock up to Murrayfield and we huddle up.

“But I walked onto the field with Darcy and the pitch felt pretty good, and I told him: ‘This is your playground.’ Because usually every time we do play at Murrayfield, Darcy's going crazy - and he went crazy again today.”

Family man fronts up

Special mention went to Zander Fagerson, who missed training this week to be with expectant – very expectant – wife Yasmine yet turned up to put his body on the line at Murrayfield, Townsend saying: “It was three in the morning, I think, on Thursday, that there was a potential of Yasmine going into hospital and his babies coming then.

“But he only came back into camp at about one o'clock today, and I thought he played really well. I felt that the scrum was a real weapon for us today, and Xander was at the heart of that.”

A flaky 20 minutes

Townsend isn’t too worried about the brief period when Fiji got themselves back into contention. Discipline is a minor issue, given the number of penalties Scotland conceded in that period. But it’s one that can be easily enough fixed.

“I think that was just Fiji doing really well with their possession,” he said, adding: “I think that's what happens if you give opposition chances to get in your 22 regularly and obviously our penalty count was part of that reason.

“And they deserved their tries. So yes, we want to fix that, we want to improve that. The pleasing thing was the response, we were put under pressure and the last 20 to 30 minutes was more like the first 20.

“It was a different type of game, there was fatigue on the field and our players showed their fitness. I thought our bench really came on and added something, all of them, whether it was working the set-piece or what they were doing in attack in particular. So yeah, it was good to see that response, things to work on as we knew they'd always be. But we got tested in that middle period and we came through.”

The deliberate knock-on rule remains a farce

Fiji coach Byrne was right to complain about the “pettiness of our game” after seeing Frank Lomani sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on after just four minutes. How long must World Rugby wait before they address one of the most nit-picking and nonsensical rules in the game?

As professional rugby players, virtually every guy on the pitch at Murrayfield would fancy their chances of making a one-handed take. Lomani could genuinely argue that he saw an opportunity to score a wonderful intercept try. He gets it wrong by a fingernail and ends up with a yellow card.

As Byrne said, this isn’t about referees. The guys in charge of individual games are merely applying the rules as they stand. But, in this instance, the law is an ass.