Hooker Ewan Ashman scored a first-half hat-trick and Duhan van der Merwe equalled Stuart Hogg's try record as Scotland continued their summer tour with a comfortable 42-7 win over the USA in Washington DC.  

The visitors opened the scoring inside five minutes when Duhan van der Merwe came off his wing and crashed over to equal Stuart Hogg’s record of 27 tries. 

Ewan Ashman added a second from a powerful Scotland maul on quarter of an hour as the tourists dominated proceedings.   

The hosts were unable to stem the flow of Scottish attacks and gave away an abundance of penalties that led to prop David Ainu’u spending 10 minutes in the sin bin.  

Ashman scored a second to take immediate advantage of Scotland’s numerical superiority and Adam Hastings was imperious from the tee as the visitors led 21-0.  

America hit back when a spill from a five-metre scrum by Matt Fagerson handed possession to the hosts, and ex-Italy centre Tomasso Boni powered over. AJ MacGinty, who fluffed an earlier penalty, converted to reduce the arrears.  

The Bristol fly-half missed another long-range penalty just before the break as Scotland’s intensity dropped, and after sustained pressure inside the home 22, Ashman completed his treble in first-half injury time.  

Scotland picked up where they left off early in the second half, a well-worked move putting Kyle Rowe away and George Horne was on hand to scamper over for his eighth Test try. 

There followed a scrappy conclusion to the game as both sides made handling errors in difficult conditions.  

Matt Fagerson added a fifth try as Scotland steamrollered the hosts at a 5m scrum 

Here are five things we learned.  

Duhan equals Hogg's record with his only chance

Predictably it took Duhan van der Merwe just five minutes to get himself on the ball, on the scoresheet and into the record books as he equalled Scotland’s all-time try record. It took Stuart Hogg 100 caps to surpass ‘flying Scotsman’ Ian Smith’s record, which stood for the best part of a century. Such is his try-scoring prowess, it has taken van der Merwe less than half those games.  

Lineout problems persist  

The lineout was an area of concern during the Six Nations and those issues reared their head again in the US capital. Scotland coughed up a try-scoring opportunity on 15 minutes when Matt Fagerson failed to gather Ewan Ashman’s throw, and the hosts stole another shortly after which gave them position inside Scotland’s half.  

When Scotland did get it right, though, they were unstoppable as Ashman showed for his try. 

Getting on the right side of the ref helps 

During the Six Nations it was far too often the case that Scotland were on the wrong side of the penalty count. The second half displays in Cardiff and Rome immediately spring to mind in that regard.

The tourists got on top of USA and forced them to infringe at regular intervals in a dominant first half. 

The second half was a more even affair, and Scotland gave up cheap possession when Dobie failed to adhere to the referee's five-second warning at a box-kick. 

Scrappy second half 

Horne’s early try aside, the second 40 minutes was one for the purists. Neither side was able to hang on to possession for any length of time. A raft of changes from both sides, plus a six-day turnaround from last weekend’s matches won’t have helped, but no doubt Scotland will be disappointed with how the second half unfolded.  

USA aren't what they used to be

The last time these two sides met, the USA produced an upset to win 30-29 in Houston, but a repeat was never really on the cards here. The USA have some fine individuals - AJ MacGinty and ex-Glasgow man Greg Peterson the pick of them - but they are not the threat they once were and it is not difficult to see how they missed out on a place at last year's Rugby World Cup. 

Much work will need to be done if they are to be competitive when they host the global showpiece in 2031. 

USA: Luke Carty, Conner Mooneyham, Tavite Lopeti (Campbell 65), Tommaso Boni, Nate Augspurger (Wilson 58), AJ MacGinty, JP Smith (McVeigh 72); Jack Iscaro (Turnbull 55), Dylan Fawsitt (Pifeleti 55), David Ainu’u (Mullen 55), Vili Helu (Uhila 63), Greg Peterson (Bonasso 57), Sam Golla, Paddy Ryan, Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz 

Try: Boni (31) 

Conversion: MacGinty (32) 

Yellow card: Ainu’u (25) 

Scotland: Kyle Rowe, Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones (Currie 68), Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Adam Hastings (Thompson 58), George Horne (Dobie 58); Pierre Schoeman (Sutherland 50), Ewan Ashman (Smith 58), Murphy Walker (Millar Mills 50), Alex Craig (Williamson 50), Scott Cummings, Jamie Ritchie (Crosbie 65), Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson 

Tries: van der Merwe (5), Ashman (18, 26, 40), Horne (49), Fagerson (73) 

Conversions: Hastings (7, 19, 27, 40, 50), Thompson (74) 

Referee: Jordan Way (Australia) 

Attendance:  17,418