It was a tough afternoon for Scotland against Fiji in Suva. Image: SNS/Scottish Rugby 
IT wasn’t even close in the end. A Scotland team shorn of nine key players who are either on the British & Irish Lions tour or recovering from injury in Zander Fagerson’s case came a distant second best to a rampant Fijian side who made the absolute most of a rare opportunity to play a tier one nation on home soil.
This defeat completes an unwanted hat-trick in Suva for Gregor Townsend, who was at stand-off when Scotland lost against the Pacific Islanders for the first time ever in the Fijian capital back in 1998 and then suffered the same outcome at the same venue in his second game as head coach of the national team in 2017.
“I think Fiji deserved to win,” conceded Townsend afterwards. “They had a lot of opportunities to put us under pressure in our 22. They were physical and obviously they’re a quality team, and they showed that [against Australia] last week, but we’re disappointed in our own performance: that we gave them so many opportunities to put pressure on us.
“The penalty count was too high, three yellow cards, it makes it very tough to win any Test match. Up against a quality side at home, it’s going to be really difficult.
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“The biggest area of improvement for us is making sure we don’t let a team like Fiji and Samoa [who Scotland play next weekend] get chances in our 22 because we’ve given away a penalty for whatever reason.
“We felt up front with our scrum and our maul, that was creating go-forward. Maybe we could have got more penalties out of it, because we were certainly the dominant team on scrum and maul. Outside of that, our defence at times looked really in control [with] some very good tackles going in, a lot of effort, and then we just had an offside penalty, a breakdown penalty, and then the three yellow cards in our own 22.
“They have a big effect on what you can do in the next 10 minutes, because you’re having to change things around line-out and personnel. For the second one [yellow card] I thought we got through that okay, because we got the try when Darcy Graham was still off. But we needed to capitalise more on that. We didn’t do that, which is disappointing.
Scotland played the final 15 minutes with 14 men after Graham received his second yellow-card of the match and Townsend had some sympathy for the winger, particularly with regard to his first carding which was for tackling an opponent before he had collected the ball.
“I think the game is a compact game, and players are body-to-body a lot in the game, [so] I don’t know how we can then make that one an incident that’s a yellow-card,” he said.
“I’d have to look at it again but at the time I thought they [the yellow cards] were very harsh, I’m not sure if the first one was going to hand anyway. But the referee makes his calls, and as soon as he’s made the call in that area, you know it’s going to be a yellow card, a potential penalty try. That really affected the scoreline for them.”
“I don’t want the focus to be on the referee. It’s got to be how we can change things and make sure that our discipline, which has been really good in recent games, stays under 10 penalties and there’s no yellow cards.”
Townsend added that he does not expect Graham to be suspended for next week’s match against Samoa as his offences were not foul play, but the dislocated finger he suffered in his last act before being sent from the field may mean he is not available in any case.
Meanwhile, back-rowers Jamie Ritchie (foot) and Matt Fagerson (same ankle as sidelined him at the end of last season) are also injury doubts.
There is significant practical implications to this loss because it means Scotland have lost ground in the quest to climb to fifth in the World Rugby rankings ahead of this December’s World Cup draw.
In fact, Fiji would have moved up one place from ninth to eighth if they had won by more than 15 points, and Scotland would have dropped from seventh to ninth, so there will be a mild sense of frustration amongst the triumphant hosts and an equal feeling of relief amongst the beaten visitors that the gap between the two sides wasn’t a single point more.
Scotland started fast and raced into the lead inside four minutes when Kyle Rowe slalomed home off a Graham pass on a strike play straight from a line-out, with Fergus Burke adding the extras, but that was the only time they really looked like they had any sort of control during the first half.
Fiji bounced right back and were twice held up over the line. Scotland then lost Ewan Ashman to the sin-bin for lying over the ball on his own line to concede a fourth home penalty in quick succession, and Jiuta Wainiqolo was bundled into touch and goal by a desperate double-tackle from Cam Redpath and Burke.
One rampaging run from Josua Tuisova left dark blue tacklers strewn across the playing surface, but a combination of Scottish resilience in defence and a lack of Fijian composure and accuracy when it came to the final pass meant that the home side couldn’t quite get off the mark during that period with an extra man until the final few seconds of that power play when Caleb Muntz slotted an offside penalty, after play was pulled back when Edinburgh No 8 Viliame Mata failed to gather what looked like a try-creating pass on the left.
Fiji continued to dominate, with powerful runners such as Mata, Tuisova and Elia Canakaivata making huge dents, and Scotland picked up another yellow-card on 35 minutes when Graham tackled Sireli Maqala early to derail a sweeping attack.
Finally all that pressure paid off for the home side with the penalty being kicked to the corner and skipper Tevita Ikanivere getting the ball down from an excellent line-out drive.
The touchline conversion floated to the left of the posts, but the hosts were ahead – deservedly so – and they weren’t done with the first half yet.
Tom Jordan was penalised for offside after getting in the way Simione Kuruvoli’s pass from the base of a ruck, and Fiji kicked to touch again. This time, the maul did not make the same sort of headway, so they sent the ball across the park, taking advantage of the extra man to send Kalaveti Ravouvou over, and Muntz slotted the tricky conversion making it 15-7 at the break.
Scotland began the second half with the same attacking zip as they had shown at the start of the first half, with Ashman bursting the line on a short ball from Jamie Dobie and then recycling quickly when he was brought down a few feet from the line by a tap-tackle to allow a quick transfer to midfield for Jordan to scamper over, with Burke slotting the straightforward conversion.
But once again, Fiji responded by producing a compelling spell of ambitious and powerful rugby, aided by their opponents indiscipline. Burke was lucky not to be the third visiting player to see yellow-card for languishing on the wrong side of a ruck to prevent clean ball for Kuruvoli.
It wasn’t quite as one-side as the first half but Fiji were certainly well worth third third try when the wonderful Jiuta Wainiqolo showed pace and footwork to evade four tackles on his way to the line, and the flying winger initiated another glorious attack straight from the restart which was carried on by Tuisova and went all the way to the Scottish line before Rowe and Burke got back to make the last-gasp tag-team tackle.
But Wainiqolo then undid some of his great work from the previous few minutes when he was penalised for a neck-roll on Burke meaning Scotland lived to fight another day.
Still they couldn’t find a way back into the game, and the visitors then suffered a major set-back when Graham intercepted from an offside position just a metre from his own line, which was punished with a second yellow-card – meaning a 20 minute red – as well as a penalty try because it was a clear-cut scoring opportunity.
And to rub salt into the wound, the live-wire winger dislocated his finger at the same time and had to have it popped back in before making his way from the pitch.
Scotland did rally and dominated possession and territory during the final 15 minutes, before a Fijian kick-chase breakout took play the length of the field and almost delivered a fifth try for the Pacific Islanders, only for referee Ben O’Keeffe to rule that some desperate defence had managed to prevent Canakaivata grounding the ball over the line.
Teams –
Fiji: S Rayasi (I Armstrong-Ravula 54); K Ravouvou, S Maqala, J Tuisova (V Botitu. 65), J Wainiqolo; C Muntz, S Kuruvoli (S Wye 72); E Mawi (H Hetet, 54), T Ikanivere (S Matavesi 54), M Doge (S Tawake 51), I Nasilasila (M Vocevoce 67), T Mayanavanua, L Tagitagivalu, E Canakaivata, V Mata (A Tuisue 66).
Scotland: K Rowe; D Graham, C Redpath (O Smith 55), T Jordan, K Steyn; F Burke (A Hastings 71), J Dobie (G Horne 57); R Sutherland (A Hepburn 55), E Ashman (G Turner 57), E Miller Mills (W Hurd 57), M Sykes (M Williamson, 57), G Gilchrist, J Ritchie (G Turner 17-21; J Bayliss 21), R Darge, M Fagerson.
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe
Scorers –
Fiji: Tries: Ikanivere, Ravouvou, Wainiqolo, Penalty Try; Con: Muntz 2; Pen: Muntz.
Scotland: Tries: Rowe, Jordan; Con: Burke 2.
Scoring sequence (Fiji first): 0-5; 0-7; 3-7; 8-7; 13-7; 15-7 (h-t) 15-12; 15-14; 20-14; 22-14; 29-14.
Yellow card –
Scotland: Ashman (10 mins), Graham (35 & 66 mins)
Red card –
Scotland: Graham (66 mins)