Edinburgh (AFP) - Australia coach Dave Rennie said his overwhelming emotion was "relief" after the Wallabies ended a three-match losing streak with a 16-15 win over Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The match was in the balance right until the finish, with Scotland fly-half Blair Kinghorn missing a 40-metre penalty in the closing seconds that would have condemned Australia to a fourth successive defeat by the Dark Blues.
Scotland led 15-6 going into the final quarter after Kinghorn, impressive in open play, created a try for full-back Ollie Smith and scored one himself.
But the match turned Australia's way when Scotland replacement Glen Young was sin-binned for a dangerous challenge on Australia scrum-half Tate McDermott.
Australia made their man advantage count, captain James Slipper forcing his way over for a converted try before fly-half Bernard Foley's penalty nudged the Wallabies a point in front 10 minutes from time.
The result meant Australia launched their European tour with a morale-boosting win ahead of next week's game against Six Nations Grand Slam champions France, the 2023 World Cup hosts, in Paris.
"A bit of relief, especially with Blair Kinghorn lining up (to take the penalty)," Rennie told reporters.
"There was a helluva lot of noise in the crowd, I thought it was over, seeing there were a lot of Aussies or a lot of drunk Scotsmen in the stands."
The New Zealander, a former Glasgow coach, added: "At 15-6, we'd given up a soft one (try) straight after half-time but we fought our way back in and got our nose in front."
For prop forward Slipper, leading an Australia side where former captain and star flanker Michael Hooper returned to Test action on Saturday after a mental health break, there was pride in seeing the Wallabies edge a close match following some agonising recent losses.
"We've had a season where we've lost a fair few games in the last kind of 10 minutes," he said.
"It was nice to actually come out on the right side of the scoreboard tonight so that's probably the,most pleasing thing but as Ren said, the character shown by the boys to hang in there."
'Going to hurt'
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend said Kinghorn would be a better player for all the disappointment of his missed penalty.
"For him, obviously it's going to hurt," said the coach."That's sport.The width of a post decides whether you win or lose sometimes.
Townsend, himself a former Scotland fly-half, added: "He can't think about the fact it was a kick that didn't go over in the last minute.It's about what you learn from it.Do you need to keep the head down longer?Is it the follow-through?What technical thing do you need to work on?"
Rennie said the final result was indicative of the competitiveness of the global game less than a year out from the World Cup.
"World rugby at the moment, there's not a helluva lot in the top eight sides.Anyone can beat anyone on any given day."
France rested several first-choice players from their 2-0 series win in Japan in July, with Rennie saying: "It's hard to get a gauge on their Japanese tour, so we have focused on their Six Nations, where they were very impressive."
And for all France's eye-catching attack, Rennie highlighted another aspect of their game.
"We know they are going to kick a lot.They play zero rugby down their end of the field.
"We are going to have look after the ball well.We want to play against them, but they prefer to play without the ball.They are very similar to South Africa."
