Kyle Steyn ran in four tries to fire Scotland to a convincing 60-14 win over Tonga to kick off their Autumn Nations Series in style at BT Murrayfield.
Rufus McLean had already got two tries on debut before Steyn got going and despite the absence of some key players including skipper Stuart Hogg and fly-half Finn Russell, the Scots ran away with it, scoring ten tries in all.
Tonga, with limited preparation of their own, were improved in the second half, but Scotland controlled the game and set themselves up nicely for next week’s clash with Australia.
McLean had got the ball rolling early on with the opening try after just seven minutes. He added a second soon after, followed by Steyn’s first before another debutant, Pierre Schoeman, grabbed the fourth with less than half an hour gone.
Scotland were purring by that point and added two more tries before half-time as Steyn completed his hat-trick to make it six tries before the break, the most the Scots had managed since the 1987 World Cup.
After the break Scotland added three more tries through the forwards, George Turner, Nick Haining and Oli Kebble crossing before Steyn completed the scoring with the final play of his second cap.
It was actually Tonga who had some early pressure with a five-metre lineout but they went off their feet and instead Scotland struck as McLean made a dream start to international rugby, taking advantage of some confusion when the ball bounced off Jamie Ritchie’s head and the winger sliced through.
Blair Kinghorn converted and while James Faiva knocked over a first penalty for Tonga, McLean was soon in again. This time it was from a lineout move, crisp passing ended with Kinghorn delivering the ball out wide for McLean who easily beat Faiva one-on-one to notch his second.
Again Tonga responded with a Faiva penalty before Steyn got in on the act, this time after a scrum with some clever interplay from the backs and Sione Tuipulotu delivering the final pass. Kinghorn missed the conversion for the first time and Tonga again cut the deficit thanks to three points from Faiva.
From there though, Scotland cut loose. Darcy Graham danced out of a number of tackles before Schoeman powered over from close range. Scotland were devastating from first phase, Steyn the beneficiary as he was put through and bounced past Vaea Vaea.
And on the stroke of half-time, he finished off the pick of the first-half tries. Attacking from his own 22, McLean raced clear before finding Graham. The pair made about 60 metres and when the ball was recycled, tighthead prop David Lolohea found himself covering the backfield and when Kinghorn put in the cross-kick, Steyn was easily fastest to it.
Scotland were not as clinical in the second half but did cross for their seventh try on 51 minutes as Turner got the ball down after a powerful rolling maul.
But after some extended pressure from the visitors, Rob Harley paid the price for some persistent infringements near the line. With the extra man, Tonga got over the line through prop Lolohea.
Tonga then lost replacement Aisea Halo to the sin-bin for taking out McLean in the air and a lovely offload from co-captain Jamie Ritchie ended up setting up Haining for his first Test try.
Kebble added another from close range to take Scotland past 50 before Steyn fittingly had the final word.
