Scotland deepen Australia gloom with 15-12 Nations Championship victory

Résumé détaillé

EDINBURGH, Nov 15 : Scotland held on for a narrow 15-12 win over Australia in the Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Sunday, deepening the gloom for next year's World Cup hosts.

Both sides scored two tries in an attritional and error-ridden battle that featured few moments of quality and a scoreless spell lasting more than 45 minutes.

Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey went over for Scotland in the opening 27 minutes and Finn Russell added a conversion for a 12-5 halftime lead.

Russell's penalty stretched the advantage to 15-5 with six minutes remaining, before Max Jorgensen crossed in the final minute and Ben Donaldson converted. Australia had opened their account through winger Harry Potter's first-half try.

It was an eighth successive loss in Europe for the Wallabies, who showed early promise when new coach Les Kiss took over in August but now look devoid of confidence and in a rut.

Australia had been heavily beaten by England at Twickenham a week earlier. Captain Harry Wilson said Sunday's performance represented a significant improvement, but the losing run leaves them under growing pressure with less than a year before their home World Cup kicks off on October 1.

Scotland overcame the overnight loss of captain Sione Tuipulotu to injury with his replacement Tom Jordan setting up the first try in the eighth minute.

Scrumhalf Ben White's pass picked out Fagerson, who was alone on the touchline and went over to give Scotland the lead.

Australia responded within three minutes after a sustained attack, flyhalf Carter Gordon delaying his pass before releasing Potter to score as Russell missed the tackle.

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