A misfiring Scotland escaped serious embarrassment as two late tries saw Gregor Townsend’s side scrape past Uruguay 31-19 in Montevideo.  

After weathering an early storm from the hosts, during which fly-half Felipe Etcheverry missed a penalty, Scotland opened the scoring with Ewan Ashman driving over from a 5m lineout for his fourth try of the tour. Ben Healy added the conversion.  

The hosts lost tighthead Diego Arbelo after he failed to retreat from a quickly-taken Scotland penalty and the visitors took immediate advantage. A tap penalty by Ashman was recycled at pace, and Matt Fagerson’s deft offload put his back-row colleague Luke Crosbie in for his first Test try.  

Then came the record-breaking moment on 25 minutes as Kyle Rowe scorched outside the Uruguayan defence from a lineout and fed Van der Merwe, who scampered over in the corner to claim the try record.  

Moments later, a blot on Scotland’s copybook as a loose pass from Healy inside their own 22 was picked off by Ignacio Alvarez. Etcheverry’s conversion reduced the arrears.  

Shortly after, Huw Jones scythed through, but couldn’t find George Horne in support as Scotland hunted a fourth try.  

As half-time approached, Uruguay enjoyed another period of pressure and succeeded where they failed early on, with fly-half Etcheverry waltzing through some porous Scottish defending to score the hosts’ second. He converted to cut the gap to 19-14 at the interval.  

The fly-half missed another sitter off the tee, but Uruguay levelled the game on the hour when replacement Manuel Diana drove over from close range. The visitors had Etcheverry’s wayward kicking form to thank for not being behind inside the final quarter.  

Scotland hit back straight away, a penalty allowing the tourists another lineout opportunity, and less than four minutes after his introduction, Patrick Harrison scored his first international try in identical fashion to club-mate Ashman. Hastings converted to give Scotland a seven-point buffer.  

That doubled with a dozen minutes left as Pierre Schoeman drove over and Scotland avoided a major scare to finish the tour unbeaten.  

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Here are five things we learned.  

Experience spares Scotland’s blushes 

This Scotland team contained 11 starters from last year’s Rugby World Cup squad, and they needed every bit of that experience to navigate what they expected to be the toughest challenge of the four-match tour.  

They were second best for much of the middle period of the match, with Uruguay dominating possession and territory, but significant impact from the bench helped the tourists pull away late on.  

Duhan the record breaker 

It took Stuart Hogg almost a decade in the Scotland jersey to break Ian Smith’s try-scoring record, which had stood for the best part of 90 years and was equalled by 1990 Grand Slam hero Tony Stanger in the late 1990s. But it has taken Duhan van der Merwe just 41 caps to score the 28 tries needed to become Scotland’s record-holder.  

The number of tries the team, and the big Edinburgh wing, score now is in stark contrast to the dark days of the Matt Williams and Scott Johnson eras but the 2021 Lions tourist is a phenomenal attacking talent.  

Attack disjointed 

Scotland were not able to impose themselves on the South American minnows.  

Scotland’s decision to slow the game down almost wherever possible seemed at odds with their approach in previous matches on this tour, while there was virtually no cohesion between half-backs Horne and Healy.  

It was only when Uruguay tired late on and the match broke up that Scotland finally pulled away, but there were too many opportunities that amounted to nothing.

World Cup star outstanding again  

At last autumn’s Rugby World Cup, Uruguay were one of the surprise packages as they pushed hosts France, albeit with a largely second-string side, and Italy close in pool matches.  

They were back to that form here, led by flanker Manuel Ardao who won three excellent turnovers. With respect to his club, Miami Sharks, he could play much higher than the American competition Major League Rugby 

Plenty to ponder 

After three one-sided encounters, this performance will have given Gregor Townsend plenty of food for thought ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.  

There have been good finds from this tour – Jamie Dobie has impressed both at scrum-half and on the wing, Kyle Rowe has looked bright and Ewan Johnson has shown he has the physicality for Test rugby, but questions persist particularly at hooker, tighthead prop and for the back-up fly-half to Finn Russell.  

Uruguay: Ignacio Alvarez, Juan Bautista Hontou (Gini 20), Juan Manuel Alonso, Tomas Inciarte, Nicolas Freitas, Felipe Etcheverry, Santiago Alvarez; Ignacio Peculo , Guillermo Pujadas (Myszka 56), Diego Arbelo (Piussi 47), Felipe Aliaga (Civetta 65), Manuel Leindekar (c), Manuel Ardao, Lucas Bianchi (Magno 69), Carlos Deus (Diana 56) 

Tries: Alvarez (27), Etcheverry (37), Diana (61) 

Conversions: Etcheverry (28, 38) 

Yellow card: Arbelo (22) 

Scotland: Harry Paterson, Kyle Rowe (Steyn 53), Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben Healy (Hastings 53), George Horne (Dobie 60); Rory Sutherland (Schoeman 53), Ewan Ashman (Harrison 60), Javan Sebastian (Walker 53), Max Williamson, Gregor Brown (Johnson 69), Luke Crosbie (Ritchie 60), Rory Darge (c), Matt Fagerson 

Tries: Ashman (12), Crosbie (22), van der Merwe (25), Harrison (64), Schoeman (67)  

Conversions: Healy (13, 23), Hastings (67) 

Referee: Damian Schneider (Argentina)