Scotland blank Tonga with 56-0 win

Scotland 56-0 Tonga, Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Scotland bounced back from their defeat to Argentina as they blanked out Tonga with a 56-0 win at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on Sunday.

Having made 14 changes to the line up from the side that played the Pumas, Scotland scored eight tries including doubles from George Horne and Ewan Ashman punishing the indiscipline from Tonga that had three yellow cards and a red card.

The fourth minute saw Semisi Paea yellow carded for an illegal clear-out on George Turner which was later upgraded to red card. Scotland made use of the numerical advantage with Jamie Ritchie powering over the line for the opening try in the 11th minute and shortly Turner followed the suit in the 12th minute. Fergus Burke kicked the conversions on both the occasions to make it 14-0.

With no response from Tonga, Scotland continued to dominate with Max Williamson touching down and Burke once again was spot on with conversion to stretch the lead to 21-0 before Tonga's Veikoso Poloniati was yellow carded for a deliberate off side at the stroke of half time.

Tonga's indiscipline proved troublesome for them as Taniela Filimone was yellow carded in the 48th minute for knocking the ball down and nine minutes later Fine Inisi also was sin-binned. Scotland's fourth try came at the end of the third quarter as Duhan van der Merwe scored his 35th try for Scotland and in the 65th minute Ewan Ashman dived over at the back of a rumbling maul making it 35-0.

As the game entered the final 12 minutes, Kyle Rowe sent an inside pass for Horne to score and soon he completed his second with this time collecting a pass from Ritchie to make it 49-0. The 50-point mark was breached in the 78th minute as Ashman completed his double at the back of a maul as Gregor Townsend's men completed a convincing win.

Team line up:

Scotland XV: 15 Tom Jordan, 14 Kyle Rowe, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Fergus Burke, 9 Ben White, 1 Rory Sutherland, 2 George Turner, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Alex Samuel, 5 Max Williamson, 6 Andy Onyeama-Christie, 7 Jamie Ritchie, 8 Magnus Bradbury.

Reserves: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Nathan McBeth, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Stafford McDowall, 23 Kyle Steyn.

Tonga XV: 15 William Havili, 14 Taniela Filimone, 13 Fine Inisi, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 John Tapueluelu, 10 Patrick Pellegrini, 9 Sonatana Takulua, 1 Siegfried Fisi’ihoi, 2 Siua Maile, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 4 Harison Mataele, 5 Veikoso Poloniati, 6 Semisi Paea, 7 Siosiua Moala, 8 Lotu Inisi.

Reserves: 16 Samiuela Moli, 17 Fatongia Paea, 18 Phil Kite, 19 Sitaleki Tiamni, 20 Fotu Lokotui, 21 Aisea Halo, 22 Tima Fainga’anuku, 23 Anzelo Tuitavuki.