Scotland lay down a marker with bonus-point win over Tonga

Gregor Townsend's men will face Ireland in a couple of weeks' time.

BREAKING THROUGH: Scotland's Jack Dempsey is tackled by Tonga's Adam Coleman at the Stade de Nice. Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

Scotland 45 Tonga 17 

They haven’t gone away, you know. Two weeks Scotland had to stew on their opening weekend loss to South Africa in Nice but this follow-up earned them the bonus-point win needed to stay in the hunt for a top-two place in Ireland’s pool.

Suffocated by the Springboks, Gregor Townsend’s men found Tonga far more accommodating. Rory Darge’s fourth try in first-half injury-time secured that bonus point and another will follow next weekend when they run Romania ragged in Lille.

That will leave them on ten points, four behind Ireland when they meet the Six Nations champions in Stade de France on October 7, and knowing that they can trump Andy Farrell’s men for a knockout place if they win and deny their opponents a match point.

Another route is to win with a bonus point and deny the Irish two.

South Africa will roll over the Tongans on the evidence of the latter’s first two games in France. Do that and the Boks would have 15 points and leave themselves out of Scotland’s reach thanks to the primacy of a straight head-to-head.

But… should all three teams finish equal on 15 points – unlikely but not impossible – then the criteria used to separate them starts with which side has the best points difference and on through tries difference, total points scored and total tries scored.

Once the top side is identified then the other two are separated by a head-to-head. Unlikely, right? Still, things are far from done in Pool B even if it’s hard to big up the Scots on the back of a match that was so very different to the preceding heavyweight tussle in Saint-Denis.

Tonga were game and landed hits that drew an ooh here or an aah there from the crowd. Centre Afusipa Taumoepeau and Vaeae Fifita should have seen more than yellows for high hits, but they couldn’t string enough disciplined intensity through their display.

They lacked the manic fervour that discommoded Ireland at ruck-time for the opening quarter in Nantes, their loose offloads created more problems than solutions and the line speed was a fraction of that which South Africa employed so savagely in Marseille.

Finn Russell had oodles of times to sling skip passes left and right far too often, and to indulge in back door passes in little pods of three or four, but Ireland won’t countenance that sort of time or space in a fortnight’s time.

Charles Piutau’s quick mind and fast hands created a second Tongan try, this one for Ben Tameifuna, to get the second period underway and reduce the arrears to just seven after William Havili’s conversion.

Like Ireland when they faced Tonga, Scotland struggled to find a rhythm in the third quarter with George Horne’s try their only reward in that window but there was never any doubt as to how the spoils would be divided come the end.

Blair Kinghorn and Darcy Graham claimed Scotland’s sixth and seventh tries to bump up the numbers but maybe more important was the fact that Finn Russell managed to shake off a terrible high hit from Fifita when pinned in a ruck.

Like with Taumoepeau, referee Karl Dickson sent Fifita to the bin and signalled a bunker review. Both decisions were hard to understand. Futher evidence that the bunker system is just not working at this World Cup.

Scotland: B Kinghorn; K Steyn, C Harris, S Tuipulotu, D van der Merwe; F Russell, B White; R Sutherland, G Turner, Z Fagerson; R Gray, S Cummings; J Ritchie, R Darge, J Dempsey.

Replacements: M Fagerson for Ritchie (34); D Graham for Steyn, H Jones for Harris, P Schoeman for Sutherland and G Horne for White (all 48); WP Nel for Z Fagerson and E Ashman for Turner (both 59); S Skinner for Gray (65).

Tonga: S Piutau; S Kata, M Fekitoa, P Ahki, A Taumopeau; W Havili, A Pulu; S Fisi’hoi, P Ngauamo, B Tameifuna; H Fifita, S Lousi; T Halaifonua, S Talitiui, V Fafita.

Replacements: S Moli for Ngauamo (51); A Coleman for Lousi, S Vailanu for Halafonua and S Takalua for Pulu (all 56); S Apikotoa for Tameifuna (67); T Koloamatangi for Fisi’hoi and S Paea for Talitui (both 70); P Pellegrini for Havili (78).

Referee: K Dickson (England).