Townsend Delighted as Revamped Scots Scorch Chile
Scotland ran in nine tries to thrill a bumper crowd at Valparaiso’s Estadio Playa Ancha this morning, in their opening match of the IRB Sevens World Series.
Townsend was handed an experimental squad for the trip to South America and handed out debuts to David Weary, Oli Grove, Joe Nayacavou and Chris Dean.
Far from looking like a new-look side, Scotland were rampant from the off against Chile and scored three tries inside the opening eight minutes through Nayacavou (2) and Grove.
Chiefs flyer Nayacavou went over for his hat-trick midway through the first half, before Grove notched his second and skipper Colin Gregor also crossed.
Scotland were 35-0 up at half-time, but Chile, making their debut on the IRB circuit, came out fighting and scored twice through Nicolas Garcia, including a long range effort from the restart.
The Scots, though, continued to threaten and Weary raced in for his first try in Scotland colours, before fellow debutant Dean went over from close range.
Nayacavou added his fourth try with five minutes to go before Gregor rounded off the scoring as time expired.
It was a very good start to the weekend for us, especially with so many changes to the squad, said Townsend.
The new boys all played well and it gave us a chance to look at different combinations, but the most pleasing thing was our intensity and speed of play.
We are now looking forward to playing Argentina tomorrow. They will be a much tougher test, but confidence is high in the squad and we’re raring to go.
Teams:
Scotland: D Weary, M Robertson, O Grove, J Nayacavou, S Lang, C Gregor (c), C Dean, J Thomson, S Trewartha, C Laidlaw, M Fedo, W Helu
Chile: N Castillo (c), M Gomez, C Saavedra, F Brantes, J Larenas, S Urroz, G Herrera, J Troncoso, S Saavedra, N Garcia, T Dussaillant, M Ayarza
Try scorers:
Scotland: Nayacavou (4), Grove (2), Gregor (2), Weary, Dean
Chile: Garcia (2), Saavedra, Dussaillant, Castillo
Conversions: Gregor (3)
Kind regards
C. Dixon
