Scotland produced a rousing second-half comeback to secure a bonus-point victory over the USA in this afternoon's Rugby World Cup Pool B match in Leeds.
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The Scottish fans far outnumbered those cheering on the Americans inside Elland Road, but it was a first half to forget for Vern Cotter's side.
Scotland led 6-3 after 15 minutes thanks to penalties from Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell after AJ MacGinty had kicked the States ahead, but that was as good as it got for the dark blues in the opening period.
Hogg missed his second attempt from range and then USA scored the only try of the first half after 20 minutes when prop Titi Lamositele powered over the line. MacGinty's conversion was skewed, but it went through in off the post to put the Eagles back in front.
Scotland should have gone over themselves five minutes later, but Hogg, after surging into USA territory, dragged his pass to Tim Visser down to knee height, making it difficult for the winger to collect and score.
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Russell was next to miss a penalty for Scotland, but MacGinty remained nerveless and split the posts with the final kick of the half to give USA a half-time World Cup lead over a tier 1 side for the first time in their history.
Cotter made a pair of changes in the pack at half time, but it was out wide where they had instant success at the start of the second half as Visser was found by Hogg to score his first World Cup try. Russell missed the conversion to leave USA two points in front.
Scotland retook the lead five minutes later with another try as this time the other winger, Sean Maitland, saw a gap and surged through to touch down under the posts.
Russell added the extras but the States soon stopped the rot as MacGinty made it four from four to cut the lead to two.
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Mike Tolkin's side appeared to have lost their defensive resolve from the first half and Scotland had a third try in 14 minutes when substitute WP Nel squeezed the ball over the line against the upright. Captain Greig Laidlaw had come on at scrum-half and took on kicking duties to put the Scots 25-16 in front.
The bonus-point try was scored with 15 minutes left on the clock when substitute Matt Scott darted through a tired USA defence to put the game out of reach.
Laidlaw kicked the extras to give Scotland double the points of their opponents and it looked like that would be the last of the scoring until another replacement, Duncan Weir, went over for a fifth Scottish second-half try in the penultimate minute.
Scotland go top of Pool B with a maximum 10 points out of 10 from their first two matches ahead of next Saturday's showdown with South Africa in Newcastle.
Pascal Lemesre
