A MOMENT OF madness from Sekope Kepu proved hugely costly for Australia as their European tour ended with an embarrassing 53-24 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Two tries in three minutes from Tevita Kuridrani, both set up by Bernard Foley, helped the Wallabies come from 10-0 down to lead with half-time looming on Saturday.
However, Kepu was then shown a red card in the 39th minute, the prop rightly dismissed after thundering his shoulder into the head of Hamish Watson as he cleared out the flanker at a tackle.
Scotland, impressive in defeat against New Zealand last weekend, regained the lead from the resulting penalty courtesy of an Ali Price try, before making their numerical advantage count in emphatic fashion after the interval.
They had never managed more than three tries in a match against Australia, but finished with an extraordinary eight on this occasion and a record points haul versus the Wallabies.
As a result, former Wallabies skipper Stephen Moore ended his career with a thumping defeat. The vastly experienced hooker was warmly applauded when he came off after an hour.
Sale wing Byron McGuigan claimed two of Scotland’s tries, having been drafted in for his first international start at short notice when star full-back Stuart Hogg pulled out in the warm-up.
McGuigan’s first score was an opportunist one, as he booted a loose ball downfield from 40 metres before twice kicking on again and touching down, and he came close to claiming a second in the opening period as Scotland continued to attack with flair.
Australia’s initial response was strong, Kuridrani first touching down from a Foley grubber and then scoring again after the fly-half had collected his own kick down the left flank and offloaded out of a tackle superbly.
Yet the visitors’ good work was undone by Kepu’s needless charge on Watson, which led to the former being dismissed following a TMO review.
Although Price’s subsequent score was cancelled out by Kurtley Beale three minutes into the second half, Scotland were soon in total command as Australia’s under-manned defence was blown away.
Sean Maitland, Jonny Gray, Huw Jones and McGuigan all went over in quick succession to thrill the vocal home support, with gaps in Australia’s defence alarmingly easy to find.
Replacement Lopeti Timani claimed a consolation score for the Wallabies, his first at international level, but Scotland were far from finished, further tries from John Barclay and Stuart McInally rounding off a day to remember in Edinburgh.
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Slippy G knowns how to win a league. Oh wait
Get in, love it. Making a contest of it Rangers, Stevie making a cracking start to management.
@Marty Morrisey: Rangers are rank rotten ,Terrible side ,Celtic will pump them next week.
@Midland Celt: And yet they lie 1 point off the Pumpers.
@Marty Morrisey: BTW With a game in Hand ,
@Midland Celt: like literally pump them?
@Marty Morrisey: you are a sad sad troll .
@Niall James Fergal McCormack: Cheers for the glorious input shorty.
@Marty Morrisey: thanks you sad man . Not sure what the shorty comment is about but f**k me I hope you are under 18 because if not it makes the way you act on the 42 even sadder . Grow up !
@Niall James Fergal McCormack: Glorious input cheers shortie.
@Marty Morrisey: you had the spelling of ‘shorty’ correct the first time. Trolling with illiteracy, Marty, is only a step above fingering a badger.
@Ian Michael O’Carroll: 1 in the stink 2 in the pink like ?
@Ian Michael O’Carroll: fingering a badger. Lol.
Steven Gerard’s Rangers were awful from start to finish. A team completely devoid of ideas. It was great to watch them toil. Morelos gets into great positions and pulled them out of a hole.
I’d imagine Celtic can’t wait for the game on the 29th.
@Ciaran Rice: 3 points all the same.
@Mark Glynn: of course but that doesn’t mask how poor Steven Gerard’s Rangers are.
@Ciaran Rice: To be fair though, they are a growing side..have had to start all over again and are making progress
@Mark Glynn: eh, the side has been getting worse every week. They are now making very few chances and scoring hardly any goals. There also have around the same points total after this round of games as they did last season.
@Ciaran Rice: If celtic win their game in hand it puts 4 points between the teams. A couple weeks back you were giving out that the Premiership has no competition when City were 3 points clear haha
@Turkish: I said the SPFL is more competitive than the EPL this season (and last season), which it is. Celtic are a point ahead. There have been 5 changes for first place in December alone. There are currently only 11 points separating 1st to 8th and 6 different sides have led the league so far this season.
Liverpool have played almost an entire round of games and are still unbeaten. Not much competition there.
@Ciaran Rice: so there not making progress, from having to start in bottom division with a new crop of players-now there in the premiership..
@Mark Glynn: if you think finishing 3rd every season, spending more than any other side whilst winning nothing is progressing then that’s up to you.
@Ciaran Rice: How much more than Celtic did they spend this season?
@Ciaran Rice: what do you mean winning nothing. Rangers secured promotion back to the Premiership having won three promotions in four years.
@The Bloody Nine: think they spent 2-3 million more than Celtic. That is going on the reported £9 million Celtic spent on Edouard, which I don’t believe is the case. The Rangers also spent more than Celtic last summer also.
@Mark Glynn: back to the premiership? They had never been there in the first place.
@Ciaran Rice: you sure mate, pretty sure it’s called the Scottish Premiership. Do your research.
Who is this Rangers you speak of? Are they anything to Steven Gerrards Rangers??
Doing well on a shoe string budget hopefully rangers pull of a shock with this squad and win it
@Colgate: oh god he’s got yet another account
@Colgate: spent most in the league . Your trolling is poor and creating new accounts so often is pathetic . Grow up !
@Niall James Fergal McCormack: 2 people on this article, just article alone you have attacked. Glorious input as per shorty.
@Marty Morrisey: 2 people? You mean you and you!! You are as bad as Andy Gorum!!!
@Marty Morrisey: what a sad sad person.. people like u that sit in there room all day and have 1 friend that’s your 8 year old sister!!
@Jay Murphy: I have 6 sister’s all older than me. Hugs n X’s JJ
@Marty Morrisey: haha shortie . I like the way that’s sticking for you because it makes no sense . Are you trolling yourself ? I’ve no idea what you are talking about but you are a very sad man .