Scotland A thrashed the England Saxons 35-0 in Galashiels on Friday show their senior counterparts the way ahead of Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield.
The result is the only the Saxons' second defeat in 20 games at this level.
Duncan Weir led the way with a try, three conversions and three penalties in his 20-point haul, Duncan Hogg added a spectacular solo effort and Rob Harley and Matt Scott forced their way over late in the game.
The Saxons saw plenty of the ball in the Borders during the opening 40 minutes but never generated much in the way of momentum - James Gaskell and Ed Slater sin binned along the way - and paid the price for missing a handful of important tackles.
They had made eight changes to the side that won 23-17 against the O2 Ireland Wolfhounds including a debut for Leicester Tigers lock Slater with Dominic Waldouck a late replacement for Jonathan Joseph in midfield.
Weir nudged Scotland in front with a fourth minute penalty but after a slow start the Saxons worked their way back into the game only for Hogg's burst down the left to put them on the back foot.
The Glasgow full back's 40 metre run and sidestep under the posts put the hosts 10-0 up after 17 minutes and the Saxons then lost skipper James Gaskell to the sin-bin two minutes before the break for a high tackle.
Weir's second penalty sent them in 13-0 down and the Saxons made an instant change at fly half with Freddie Burns replacing Ryan Lamb and another shortly after with Kearnan Myall taking over from George Robson.
Any route back into the game was halted by Weir's 52nd minute try as he shrugged off two sets of tackles to go under the posts, adding a conversion and a penalty five minutes later with Slater the second Saxon in the sin bin.
Harley forced his way over into the right-hand corner after a close-range scrum and Scott found a huge gap to accelerate through 12 minutes from time.
Comments
APV1 says...
@ melkdave - Hear! Hear! I was very disappointed that it wasn't televised and then, more so, with the result.
Posted 10:28 06th February 2012
melkdave says...
Pity the game wasnt televised like the wolfhounds one and ciongraulations Scotland A as has been said by PR the Saxons dont lose often .It does read like it was a close game until Hogg scored a brealaway try and the Saxons had players sin binned .But that takes nothing away from Scotland As win imo.The worrying thing is it says the Saxons didnt genarate any momentum from their posistiion so looks like the backs misfired again imo.Perhaps 8 changes where to much but then again this year its all about finding players for the future at Saxons and full national leval again well done Scotland A
Posted 13:36 04th February 2012
kybone says...
Unbelievable result for Scotland. Maybe its an oman for the senior tie. As an England fan i find myself becoming more nervous the closer we get to the game. I really cannot wait now. I just hope its not another slug fest as most England v Scotland games have been over the last 10 years or so.
Posted 11:24 04th February 2012
lawynd says...
Well that didn't go according to plan! I haven't seen the game, but it sounds like Scotland played the Saxons off the park, well done. Hopefully we'll win the senior test today though! ;)
Posted 10:34 04th February 2012