Darcy Graham sees red as Scotland slip to defeat in Fiji
They had gone into the game sitting seventh in the world rankings and targeting a place in the top six which would mean a more favourable draw for the 2027 World Cup in Australia, but they ended it licking their wounds after a bruising reverse.
A hard-fought battle in Suva with Fiji taking the win.#AsOne #SkyscannerPacificTour pic.twitter.com/0sBS3uR3UJ
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 12, 2025
The Scots led 7-0 after just four minutes when Graham put full-back Kyle Rowe through and he went over with debutant fly-half Fergus Burke converting.
However, ill-discipline was to hamper their efforts to gain revenge for their 27-22 defeat in Suva in 2017.
Hooker Ewan Ashman's eighth-minute yellow card after the ninth-ranked Fijians had pushed the visitors back towards their own line and prompted a series of infringements did his side few favours, but the 14 men survived punishment in his absence and he was back on the pitch by the time Caleb Muntz reduced the deficit with a penalty.
But Graham's departure to the sinbin nine minutes before the break for tackling a player without the ball was punished severely.
44' | TJ opens the scoring for Scotland in the second half. #AsOne pic.twitter.com/KjiYyLs7nj
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 12, 2025
First Tevita Ikanivere touched down after Fiji had breached the Scottish defence from a line-out, and then Kalaveti Ravouvou was the beneficiary after his side had spun the ball out from another set-piece, with Muntz converting the latter effort to send them in at the break with a 15-7 lead.
Scotland dragged themselves right back into it within four minutes of the restart when Bristol centre Tom Jordan crossed after an Ashman break and Burke added the two points to ease Townsend's men to within a point of the hosts.
However, Toulon winger Jiuta Wainiqolo's fine 59th-minute try, which was again converted by Muntz, restored Fiji's lead and when they were awarded a penalty try which saw the offside Graham collect a second yellow card and therefore a red, the tourists' day was done.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Belfast Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Northern Ireland striker set to be subject of League One bidding war as multiple sides weigh up offers
The Belfast Telegraph revealed earlier this week that the former Cliftonville hero was open to a move away from the Scottish Championship side in order to keep his World Cup dreams at international level alive. After scoring 18 times for Ross County last season, Hale has already netted four goals this term for the Staggies and played 90 minutes on Saturday in the 2-2 draw at Airdrie as the Highlands club began their campaign in Scotland's second tier following their relegation from the top flight in May. It is understood the striker, having made a positive impact on his Northern Ireland debut in June, is keen to play at a higher level to cement his place in Michael O'Neill's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, which kick off with an away double header versus Luxembourg and Germany in September. League One sides Luton and Wycombe Wanderers have been tracking Hale, while Reading have also been keeping an eye on the 26-year-old and could now be ready to make their move. In turn, that may lead to others following suit, with Ross County looking for a healthy return on a player who has been a big hit for them and has two years left on his contract. Reading, who on Saturday lost their opening League One fixture of the season 2-0 at Lincoln, have money to spend after midfielder Harvey Knibbs joined Charlton Athletic for an undisclosed fee. Fellow Hale admirers Wycombe Wanderers were also defeated in their first game 2-1 at Bradford. Scottish Premiership clubs are monitoring the situation but it seems the English sides have moved ahead in the race. Belfast native Hale played at youth and Under-21 level for the Republic of Ireland but last year opted to go through a protracted FIFA process to complete an international transfer to Northern Ireland. Having waited patiently for his first appearance for O'Neill's side, he started in the 1-0 friendly win over Iceland at Windsor Park and looked dangerous in attack. After enjoying his first taste of senior international football, Hale is hungry for more and is determined to give himself the best chance possible of playing in the World Cup games.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
DROP THE EGO! Rangers boss Martin hits out at his players' mentality after dropping points on the first day of the Premiership season
Russell Martin last night let rip at the Self-Preservation Society dragging down the Rangers dressing-room and vowed to weed out the egos and hiders that were lucky to escape from Fir Park with a 1-1 draw. The Ibrox head coach saw yesterday begin with a £3million fee being agreed with Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles for Finnish winger Oliver Antman. However, it quickly turned into a nightmare with a terrible display at Motherwell seeing home forward Emmanuel Longelo cancel out a James Tavernier opener with three minutes to play – and Rangers keeper Jack Butland then having to save a point in time added-on when denying Tom Sparrow. Rangers have now failed to win their opening-day league fixture for three straight seasons and Martin read the riot act afterwards with a scathing critique of his side and their mental fragility. 'The problem should be tactical. It shouldn't be mentality,' said Martin. 'We have too many guys that slip into self-preservation mode and I think it's been a fact of this club for the last few years, for sure. 'When it's going well, you're all-in, you want to run, you want the ball. It's nice, but, when it's not going well, you don't want to run so much, you pick and choose when you want to run. 'You pick and choose when you want to compete and mark your player from a throw-in or a corner. You pick and choose when to run back, and it's unacceptable for this sort of club. 'For us as a coaching staff, this is not acceptable. We're six weeks in. There will be issues, but the issue today is purely mentality. Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you're either all in all the time or you're not. 'If you're not, you just won't play very much. I'm very disappointed and a bit hurt and a bit angry at a lot of stuff I saw. 'The problems haven't been tactical yet, really. They've been mentality, about energy, about courage, intensity, aggression, to play. We haven't started games well enough in the first half in the two European games. 'We then showed a bit more willingness to trust the detail in each other and work. Then, today, we go ahead and we're playing some OK stuff. Every time we get in the final third, we turn the ball over and make crazy decisions. 'They're either selfish decisions or they're based on anxiety, so we need to get to the bottom of that - because there was far too much stuff that we haven't worked on or haven't seen. 'I take full responsibility for it, but that hurts me more than anything.' Martin admitted he has not been entirely surprised by the mentality problems which surfaced with a vengeance in Motherwell. 'When I knew I was in for the job, I watched a lot of games where players could do what they want and that's not on the manager,' he said. 'I thought Barry Ferguson did a great job, I could see what Philippe Clement was trying to do. But players sometimes? Yeah, same problems really, want to run, sometimes don't. 'You need better mentality than that to play for this football club and to actually win things. 'We'll work out the guys who are all-in all the time. Lyall Cameron came on, was fantastic. John (Souttar), Nasser (Djiga), Jack (Butland) did great. 'We have to solve it as a group. We've been really demanding with them on certain rules. Not many, just, I think, really basic ones that should be demanded at this football club. 'A little bit of resistance to that from some, not a lot, because they know and understand why and it's best for them.' Martin was aware of an angry reaction from the visiting support at time-up and had no problem with that at all. 'I 100-per-cent understand,' he said. 'I was as angry as they were. So I completely understand the supporters' reaction. We have a point that we didn't deserve. 'We let them down. The mentality of the team, I spoke about it so much since we came in, and it was a big problem.' Antman is expected to complete his transfer in the coming days and Martin is clear he needs more to turn this team around as he prepares for Tuesday's Champions League third qualifying round first leg with Viktoria Plzen at Ibrox. 'We need some better players to help us, for sure,' he said. 'We need some players that we feel will do what we're asking them to do all the time. 'The ones who are here are good enough to do it. They just need to make a choice if they want to do it. 'There's different groups of people at every club. Some are looking and going: 'That's too much for me. It's too much. Demand's too much. Training's too much'. 'They just want to float through a little bit, so they get left behind. That's fine. Then you have the guys in the middle who can go either way but they'll always be attracted to what is the majority. 'I feel we have the majority who want to play in this way and understand it will make them successful. The ones maybe in the middle need to go that way or they'll just be left behind. Asked if bad mentalities can be overcome, Martin replied: 'Yes, because it's a reflection of me ultimately. Whenever I leave this football club in a few years, hopefully in a long time, the problem won't be the mentality of the team.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'It has to be better than that'
Rangers captain James Tavernier tells Sky Sports: "Obviously [after] the first 45 minutes we were going in 1-0 up, we knew that we had to go up the gears and work on things in the second half, and we didn't do that."We didn't go and improve our first half, which we wanted to do, that's obviously something we'll have to look back on. It has to be better than that."None of us are happy in there with the performance we put in, obviously, it's a long season and you don't want to start like this, but it's obviously done now, and now we need to really focus on Tuesday and really work out what needs to be done."This team is obviously a new team, but we can't waste any chances."Obviously, going to have to look back on it, it's still really raw and fresh so we're going to look back on it tomorrow, and we'll get into details of what needs to be better. We'll have to look back on it."It's clear a simple, this club want to win trophies, the fans want to win trophies, so performances like this aren't acceptable for us as a team and the standards we want to set ourselves."The first half, we can take a little bit of a positive, but we knew we had to step it up, and we didn't do that, so that's obviously an area where we need to look at."
