In front of over 60,000 fans at Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, a much-changed home side raced into a third-minute lead when, after a number of attempts on the Portuguese line, novice international tighthead Will Hurd was the forward who finally managed to touch down, despite the best efforts of Andre da Cunha and David Costa.
The returning Darcy Graham was surprised to receive a speculative no-look pass from Portugal wing Raffaele Storti in the middle of the field, the ball then finding captain Stafford McDowall who turned on the afterburners to score his second try in eight Test matches. Fly-half Adam Hastings converted for a 12-0 lead with under 15 minutes played.
A morale-lifting moment came for Portugal ahead of the end of the first quarter when they won a scrum penalty inside their own 22, but the hosts were equally happy to take any prosaic win that came their way, which it did just before the half-hour. Scotland looked on course to score from a maul, only for the opposition to be deemed to have brought it down illegally. A penalty try for Scotland, and referee Takehito Namekawa brandished a yellow card at second row Duarte Torgal. 19-0.
After his four-try haul against Fiji on opening weekend, Darcy Graham was always going to be the captain of most people’s Autumn Nations Series fantasy teams – something for which they were rewarded when the pocket rocket wing scorched his way through a flimsy Portuguese defensive line for his 29th career try. In the process, he equalled Duhan van der Merwe's record for their team's all-time top try-scorer. With Hastings’ conversion a success, Scotland now had the sort of lead that a casual observer might have expected at this point in the game: 26-0.
As half-time approached, Scotland worked the ball wide deep in Portuguese territory. Outside centre Rory Hutchinson surged forwards but was tripped by a good Lucas Martins ankle-tap, and before hitting the turf managed to put in a one-handed offload to number eight Josh Bayliss on his outside to score. The extras added by Hastings turned the screw on the tourists: 33-0.
Portugal still had a window of opportunity to salvage something from an otherwise disappointing first half. When Scotland were penalised near their 5m line, Portugal kicked for touch, and from the resulting maul number two Luka Begic peeled off the back to go over. Scrum-half Samuel Marques converted to see out the first half 33-7.
Another intercept by Scotland let Portugal down once more at the start of the second half, captain Tomas Appleton shipping too fast under pressure from the oncoming Hastings, not realising that Scotland’s George Horne would be the beneficiary. The scrum-half was snagged shy of the try-line, but Scotland went patiently through the motions until loosehead Jamie Bhatti spotted a gap through which to score: 38-7.
There followed an extended period of stasis until the 54th minute. Marques got the better of opposite number Horne, ripping out of the scrum-half’s attempted upright tackle in front of the Scottish posts and scoring a try, which he converted himself: 38-14.
Two high and long passes were all it took for Scotland to score on the hour, wing Arron Reed with too much pace for the defence to catch him. Hastings converted, and a minute later was being called upon to do the same thing when Reed went out-and-in for his second try in as many minutes, with the Portuguese still reeling from his previous effort.
At 52-14, there seemed little chance of the embattled Portugal mounting any sort of meaningful comeback. Scotland had essentially emptied the bench with 15 minutes left, but instead of putting the game to bed even further, they messed up a lineout on their 5m line, losing possession, and wing Storti took a short pass to step and fend his way to the line for the try. After Marques’ conversion, it was 52-21 with a little over ten minutes remaining.
Replacement scrum-half Jamie Dobie then scampered across for a simple close-range try, his forwards having softened up the Portuguese defence with a barrage of hit-ups. Fullback Tom Jordan, now on kicking duty, converted.
Portugal thought they might have had the last word in the match after replacement Vasco Baptista looked to have scored, only for the TMO to show that Darcy Graham, bumped off in the act, recovered to hold up the ball.
