A dominant second-half performance in which they scored 26 unanswered points, kept Scotland on track to finish top of Pool A in the Junior World Trophy in Kenya.
Their last group stage match is against Uruguay next Tuesday. The South Americans are also two from two so this will be a straight shoot-out to reach the Trophy final on July 30. Scotland need to win that match in order to secure promotion back into the top tier Junior World Championship in 2024.
Co-captain Ben Afshar was the catalyst to yesterday’s win with two tries in five minutes immediately after half time. He also kicked five out of his six conversion attempts.
Scotland head coach Kenny Murray said: “I was very frustrated coming up to half time. We didn’t really stick to our game plan, we probably tried to win the game in the first 10 minutes using a few line-out options we’d hope to use later on in the game, so there is a learning in that for some of our decision makers at nine and 10.
“We also missed a couple of tackles to hand over cheap points, so we need to be more clinical there.
“At half time we spoke about respecting the ball, getting into corners and using our drive, then getting off the line in defence. So, we put ourselves under a bit of pressure and it was a really good learning for the boys to find a way to win. We pretty much dominated them in the second half, which was really pleasing to see.”
As Murray began to look ahead to the Uruguay game, he added: “We got through the game well today with new fresh injuries to worry about. They [Uruguay] are quite a big team up front but watching that first game they played against the USA, I thought they tired a lot in the second half, so our game plan and strategy needs to be based around making them really work.”
Scotland took the lead on 15 minutes when an attack down the short-side from a line-out maul gave Finn Douglas the chance to skip past his man and scamper home, with Afshar converting.
USA bounced back almost immediately when Aisake Tukuafu pierced the Scottish defensive line and sent Corbin Smith over for a try which was converted by Hugh O’Kennedy, who then kicked a not-rolling-away penalty against Jonny Morris on 27 minutes to edge his team into the lead.
Scotland thought they had recaptured the initiative when, after several phases of driving play on the USA line, the ball was eventually sent out to stand-off Andy McLean, who threaded a lovely grubber into the corner for Logan Jarvie to pounce on, but the try was chalked off for an illegal clear-out by co-skipper Liam McConnell earlier in the move.
The USA extended their lead when loose handling and a side entry penalty conceded directly in front of Scotland’s posts allowed O’Kennedy to kick three more easy points.
Scots pressure did eventually pay off with just 30 seconds of the first half to play, when the young thistles kicked a scrum penalty to the corner, then bashed their way over with Findlay Thomson hitting the line hard to apply the finishing touch.
Scotland fired out the blocks at the start of the second half and quickly stretched their lead when forward power marched the USA back to just short of the own line, creating the opportunity for Afshar to pick up from the base and scuttle over.
The scrum-half struck again 10 minutes later, once again breaking from the base after Scotland’s dominant maul had taken play to five yards short of the USA line, then McLean demonstrated his eye for a gap – not for the first or last time in this match – when darting in for their fifth try with just under an hour played.
Corey Tait rounded off the scoring when he applied the downward pressure following another powerful line-out maul which the USA simply had no answer to.
Scorers: Scotland – Tries: Douglas, Thomson, Afshar 2, McLean, Tait. Cons: Afshar 5.
USA – Try: Smith. Con: O’Kennedy. Pens: O’Kennedy 2.
Scotland: D King; L Jarvie, B Salmon, F Thomson ( K Yule 60), F Douglas; A McLean (M Reid 70), B Afshar (H Patterson 69); R Deans (C Davidson 53), C Tait, C Norrie (O Minnis 53), E Erskine (F Duraj 70), J Parkinson (R Hart 54), L McConnell, J Smith, J Morris (S Derrick 65).
USA: R Santos; C Smith, A Tukuafu, D Besag (S Pongi 62), I Toia’ivao; H O’Kennedy (O Cline 61), S Williams (C Saint 59); J Wilson (J Vinter 55), C Crist (J Brooks 71), C Devos (L Best 71), H Duke (D Fortune 45), W Sherman, L Ballinger, H McKay (J Cain 71), A Christians.
Referee: Sylvain Mane (Senegal)
