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Captain Ross Ford’s lion-hearted Scots thwarted and frustrated the Wallabies to win 9-6 in atrocious conditions at Newcastle last night.
With driving rain, gale force winds, and a deep freeze, the Scots were right at home.
It was so like Murrayfield.
But that didn’t tell the real story.
In a sustained defensive effort as good as I’ve ever seen, Scotland fended off wave after wave of Wallaby onslaughts deep inside Scottish territory for most of 36 minutes in the second half, with the score locked at 6-6.
In the end Scotland made 131 tackles to 62, the vast majority of them in the second half.
The turning point was that 76th minute when debut Wallaby inside-centre Mike Harris up and undered 40m out from his own line. But the gale took over and the ball went dead in goal.
Scrum back to where Harris kicked it, Scotland put-in.
The tension from all that constant heavy defensive work lifted, and the Scots grew an extra leg, with a sniff of victory.
It was inevitable a penalty or drop goal would win the game.
Harris had missed two long range penalty shots in the second half with Berrick Barnes having a hand on the ball to stop it falling off the mound, so fierce was the gale and rain.
Barnes missed a hurried drop goal attempt.
But thanks to the Harris kick that went dead, Scotland was in the right place at the right time for fly-half Greig Laidlaw to land the decider 2 minutes 10 seconds into extra time, when Wallaby prop Ben Alexander was penalised for collapsing the scrum.
It was Scotland’s superb defence that won in the end.
It was the Wallabies’ inability to turn persistent pressure into points in the second half with a gale at their backs that lost it.
Wallaby bench lock Rob Simmons may well have scored in the 56th minute, just a minute after taking the field. But the TMO Vinny Munro had no chance to confirm the try in a sea of bodies with no ball in sight.
While the backs on both sides were almost frozen to rigor mortis status through inactivity, the Simmons “try” would have made a big difference in a forward dominated game because of the dreadful conditions.
But the Wallabies had plenty more chances to trouble the scoreboard.
In the wash-up, the six new caps didn’t blot their copybook, but didn’t shine either. Tireless prop Dan Palmer was the best of them; blindside flanker David Dennis not far behind.
The standouts last night in impossible conditions to play any decent rugby were Wallaby winger Digby Ioane, the two Scottish locks Richie Gray. and Alastair Kellock, and the 20,088 brave souls who graced Hunter Stadium in the putrid weather rather than watch the game on television in the warmth of their homes.
Ioane doesn’t know how to play a bad game, and should have been better utilised closer to the action.
And what a bonus for Scotland at lineout time and throughout that second half defensive effort to boast these two giant units – Gray at 203cms – 6ft 8 – 125kgs, with Kellock at 205cm – 6ft 9 – and 117kgs.
“We weren’t on the same page,” was how coach Robbie Deans described the Wallaby performance to match the weather.
Let’s see if the selectors on Thursday can write the 22 to meet Wales on Saturday at Suncorp on the same page of the selection book.