On the surface, Saturday evening’s dominant yet unopposed 85-0 win for Gregor Townsend’s side against the United States of America may have seemed like a comfortable warm-up for Scotland before facing New Zealand at Scottish Gas Murrayfield next weekend.
However, this scheduling choice could come with several repercussions, which could hinder Scotland’s remaining Quilter Autumn Nations Series as well. This is almost a certainty after the All Blacks’ underwhelming 26-13 victory over Ireland in Chicago.
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Firstly, the lack of competitiveness in the fixture against America. Whilst an improving side, they do not currently pose a significant physical or tactical threat, unlike other Tier One nations.
It was 45-0 at the interval as Dylan Richardson was first to cross the whitewash, which Duhan van der Merwe, Darcy Graham, and Jamie Dobie accompanied the 26-year-old with braces as Scotland ran riot.
In all honesty, the encounter was never going to provide a hard-fought, gritty rehearsal, which Scotland perhaps needed before facing world-class operators, New Zealand. A straightforward outing in the curtain raiser for the Autumn internationals may have provided comfort.
Playing a lower-ranked opponent and convincingly being victors will not provide the stern test, and Scotland may still enter the marquee fixture in the Scottish capital undercooked. If anything, a false sense of security.
Dominating the USA might inflate Townsend’s side with confidence, as attention quickly turns to the showdown against the All Blacks. With this almost pointless Test match yesterday falling outside of the Test window, Scotland were without key individuals, such as Finn Russell, Blair Kinghorn, and Ben White.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Townsend said: “It’s a huge match. This game has been sold out for a while. Everyone loves watching the All Blacks.”
“We’ve had two cracking matches against them, but not delivered that winning performance.
“All these experiences, today (against the USA) included, have to be put into an 80-minute performance.
“The players can take confidence from how well they’ve trained this week. We have to build that cohesion pretty quickly. There’s no reason why we can’t. The guys will be up for it and have the belief they can do it.”
While beating the USA 85-0 is impressive on paper and a morale boost, it may also carry some negatives that need to be addressed off the field before the ‘biggest’ match of the year for Scotland.
