Scotland eased to victory over the USA on a very humid, sweaty evening in Washington. While it wasn’t a classic, the dark blues’ dominance up front over a huge Eagles’ pack, allied to a few moments of class in the backs, meant that a big winning margin was never in doubt.

Here are some of the stand-out stats from the encounter at Audi Field.

Versus USA

  • Sixth win – from seven attempts.
  • Six tries scored – only in 2002 (10 tries) have the Scots scored more against the US.
  • A 35-point winning margin – Scotland's largest over the Eagles for more than 20 years.

Match stats

Tackles missed by Scotland – 8

The tourists had the best tackle completion in the Six Nations and have continued with those standards on this tour.

Against Canada they only missed 9 tackles and across 180 minutes of action in North America their completion rate is running at 93%, while they have only given up two line breaks.

Scrums – 19

Conditions meant handling was a tricky prospect for almost everyone and it increasingly turned into a knock-on fest as the game progressed.

There were a dozen scrums in the second half, including one sequence of four between the 69th and 75th minutes where the ball was in open play for just 13 seconds – around 3.7% of game time.

Penalties - 24

The US defence was far better structured than Canada’s had been a week earlier. The Eagles also brought far more physicality and aggression which disrupted the flow of Scotland’s attack but came at the cost of a high number of penalties conceded – 16, compared to eight from Scotland.

Lineouts – 31

Apart from a couple of unsuccessful kicks at goal by USA, almost every penalty was booted to touch, accounting for more than two thirds of the game’s lineouts.

Scotland opted to maul more than 60% of the catches they made (11 out of 18) which was understandable given the success they had even when faced with a much heavier opposition pack.

The scorers

A quick-fire stat for each of Scotland’s try scorers:

1st – Duhan van der Merwe

The giant winger was clearly on a mission to tie Scotland’s scoring record as quickly as possible, crossing with five minutes and ten seconds on the clock for his fastest try in Scotland colours.

2nd, 3rd and 4th – Ewan Ashman

Since the summer tour of 2018, Scotland men have scored 10 hat-tricks, averaging one every seven games played. The national side’s previous ten hat-tricks were spread over 92 years, at an average of one every 54 games.

5th – George Horne

This was the eighth try by a scrum half in Scotland’s last ten matches – the same number that their 9s had scored in 44 games prior. 

6th – Matt Fagerson

Wee brother has bragging rights over big brother with Matt notching his fourth Scotland try, compared to three for Zander.