Against Portugal, Scotland took their try tally for 2024 to 59 – six more than any other calendar year in their history.
Here are some stand-out stats from the third weekend of Autumn Nations Series’ action.
- Adam Hastings’ conversion of Arron Reed's first try took the fly-half to 150 points for Scotland. He ended the game on 152, which is a decent tally but still some 515 short of the tally his dad Gavin managed.
- Tom Jordan bagged his first points for Scotland. He is the 75th player to score for the dark blues during the Townsend era.
· There is only one occasion when Scotland have scored more points in a match at Murrayfield – in November 2021 when they racked up 60 against Tonga.
- Back row, Freddy Douglas, made seven tackles (none missed) in the 15 minutes he was on the pitch. His rate of 0.47 tackles per minute was the highest of any of the 46 players who featured in Saturday’s game.
- The flanker became just the fourth teenager to play for Scotland during the professional era after Stuart Hogg, Jonny Gray and Matt Fagerson. The last teenager to win a cap during the amateur days was current head coach Gregor Townsend, back in 1993.
Try 1: Will Hurd*
Touched down with 3:24 on the clock, making this the fastest try scored by Scotland in the last four years, since Darcy Graham crossed on 1:58 against Georgia in October 2020.
Try 2: Stafford McDowall**
In Scotland's last 37 matches, he is the only player to have scored a try while skippering the side – both versus Canada during the summer and in this game.
Try 3: Penalty Try
The first penalty try awarded to Scotland since their fixture against New Zealand in November 2022.
This was the sixth penalty try for the dark blues during the Townsend era.
Try 4: Darcy Graham
His 29th Scotland try, meaning he is again tied with Duhan van der Merwe as Scotland’s record try scorer.
Only Tony Stanger (21) has scored more tries for Scotland at Murrayfield than the 19 notched by Graham.
He is the first player in history to score in six consecutive appearances at Murrayfield for Scotland, overtaking Huw Jones’ record of five.
He has crossed for at least one try in 13 of the last 18 games he has started in Edinburgh for club and country (22 tries scored).
Try 5: Josh Bayliss
He has scored a try in each of his last five matches for Scotland and Bath when he has worn the number eight jersey.
Try 6: Jamie Bhatti*
Took him until his 35th Scotland cap to score a Test try.
He has avoided joining the group of props with 36 or more caps but no tries for the national side:
- Allan Jacobsen – 65 caps
- Iain Milne – 44
- Ian McLauchlan – 43
- Hugh McLeod – 40
- David Rollo – 40
- Moray Low – 37
- Rory Sutherland – 36
The only non-prop who would make it onto this list would be Ryan Wilson – 50 caps, no tries.
Try 7: Arron Reed**
He is the 14th player to score a try on their first start at Murrayfield during the Townsend era.
- Props – Pierre Schoeman, Will Hurd
- Hookers – Dave Cherry
- Back rows – Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge
- Half backs – Scott Steele
- Centres – Chris Harris
- Back Three – Byron McGuigan, Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe, Kyle Steyn, Rufus McLean, Ollie Smith, Arron Reed
Try 8: Arron Reed
On six of the last eight occasions that he has scored a try for either Scotland or Sale, he has gone on to notch a second in the same match.
The longest gap between his first and second tries during these games was 26 minutes. The shortest was three minutes – on Saturday v Portugal.
Try 9: Jamie Dobie**
He has scored eight tries in the last 783 minutes he has played for Scotland and Glasgow (five tries in 3,154 minutes prior to that).
By way of comparison, across the same period, Duhan van der Merwe has scored six tries in 1,024 minutes.
* First try for Scotland
** First try at Murrayfield for Scotland
Read the rules here