Duhan van der Merwe was "absolutely buzzing" to have broken Stuart Hogg's all-time Scotland try record with his 28th international score in the win over Uruguay. 

The winger has an incredible strike rate of 28 tries from 41 caps, but the record-breaking effort will be among the more straightforward of those. 

After a lovely set-piece move from a lineout put Kyle Rowe into space, the Glasgow wing opted not to go it alone and instead fed his Edinburgh counterpart for the historic moment. 

And van der Merwe acknowledged the work of his wing colleague. 


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He said: "I'm absolutely buzzing. Kyle Rowe made it easy for me to be honest.

"He had a walk-in but just gave it to me and it just shows what a good relationship we have in this group."

After equalling the record with an early try against USA and breaking it in Montevideo, he's already thinking about more.

"Going one ahead of Hoggy is pretty special and hopefully there’s a lot more to come," he said. 

The South African-born winger, who made a try-scoring debut for Scotland in 2020 after qualifying on residency, said the record was in the back of his mind. 

"I’ve never really chased it," he said post-match, before stating: "When it got to the point of 23-24 I think you go into a game hoping to score. Coming on this tour I was hoping to break the record - at least I’ve managed to do that now.

"The monkey is off my back now so I can just go out and enjoy myself and play.”

Van der Merwe's record-breaking moment threatened to be overshadowed by the final result as Uruguay fought back from  19-0 down to draw level with quarter of an hour to play. 

Scotland pulled away thanks to late tries from Patrick Harrison and Pierre Schoeman, and van der Merwe admitted it was far from a perfect performance. 

“Bit scrappy," was his verdict.

"Fair play to them [Uruguay]. I thought they were physical and very good at the breakdown. We just weren’t good enough in the first half.

"We came out in the second half, we spoke about being better and more disciplined. We held on to the ball a wee bit more and managed to get some points on the board.”

While the value of the tour has been called into question - particularly by Scotland fans who have watched the other Six Nations countries compete against the world's best from the southern hemisphere - the Edinburgh wing believes it has been a good experience. 

He added: “It’s been brilliant. There have been a lot of boys making their debuts, more guys getting gametime as well.

"Boys will get a lot of confidence from this going forward and going four from four on a summer tour like this is pretty special. We can just build on that.”


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And head coach Gregor Townsend also paid tribute to the winger after his record-breaking score. 

"You don’t get that sort of try-scoring record if you are not someone who works hard for the team, if you are just hanging on the wing waiting for the game to come to you.

Blair Kinghorn and Darcy Graham are among those who will look to apply pressure to record-breaking Duhan van der MerweBlair Kinghorn and Darcy Graham are among those who will look to apply pressure to record-breaking Duhan van der Merwe (Image: SNS)

“He works really hard to get in those positions. He is obviously very competitive and wants to beat the person in front of him, and then can show his strength to finish.

“And I have to say: what an achievement to break this record!

"I remember when I was playing, Tony Stanger joint held it with Ian Smith from the 1920s, so that shows how hard it has been to break – then Hoggy broke it, now Duhan is breaking it, and we have guys in our squad like Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones and Darcy Graham who obviously missed last season through injury hot on his heels.

"It is really exciting that we have guys with great try-scoring records who can maybe challenge Duhan, but I am sure Duhan is going to extend that record over the next few seasons.”