Scotland smash the Barbarians
Hadden's heroes repel star-studded invaders
Scotland limbered up for their two-Test tour of South Africa with an impressive 66-19 victory over the Barbarians at Murrayfield on Wednesday evening, topping England's efforts against the same opponents by a full 20 points.
Edinburgh Gunners star Chris Paterson emerged as the hero of the nine-try romp, claiming a personal haul of 31 points.
The Scots made a rousing start, opting to play a mixed early game as they combined handling sequences with kicks into space before hooker Scott Lawson set up the first clear-cut scoring chance with a midfield break.
The move collapsed – but they picked up an easy three points via the boot of Paterson as the Barbarians defence crept offside and the home winger chipped over the penalty from point-blank range.
There was an immediate scare for Scotland as Ireland flank Kieran Dawson snapped up an opportunist touchdown.
He broke from the scrum swiftly to charge down a Mike Blair clearance and was equally quick to react to pounce for the score in the corner. Chris Malone made the wide-angled conversion look simple.
But Blair made instant amends at the other end just three minutes later – skipper Jason White offloaded to Ally Hogg, whose lobbed short pass was snatched by Blair at the second attempt who just had to go over the line.
Paterson added the extras to restore Scotland's slender advantage – and they wasted no time in grabbing their second try.
Barbarians skipper Will Greenwood, playing his last competitive game, spilled the ball in his own danger zone, leaving Andy Henderson with a formality of a task to scoop it up and cruise over. Paterson again converted.
The visitors were spurred into more attacking action of their own and Greenwood's link work paved the way for full-back Steve Hanley to sneak through for their second counter.
The frantic end-to-end action continued as Paterson bagged a brilliant solo touchdown, latching on to a pass from Blair and outstripping Hanley and Leon Lloyd to dash to glory from 50 metres. Then for good measure, he chipped over the conversion.
The Baa-baas stepped up the pace in the build-up to the break but Glasgow's Canadian star Kevin Tkachuk let the ball slip from his grasp just before he reached the target.
Scotland made a spate of changes at the restart, with skipper Jason White among those being given a breather.
The armband was handed to Paterson, whose first act of the half was to turn Marcus Di Rollo's try into a seven pointer.
And any prospect of a meaningful Barbarians fightback was snuffed out when substitute hooker Dougie Hall was driven over by his pack-mates for score number five which Paterson converted from wide on the right.
Replacement scrum-half Sam Pinder then marked his maiden appearance in a Scotland jersey with a runaway try following a surge by Glasgow colleague Donnie Macfadyen with Paterson maintaining his 100 percent kicking record.
The Barbarians refused to buckle completely and France centre Tony Marsh powered over for their third touchdown, converted by Malone.
Scotland replied positively to notch the half-century through Blair, who had returned to the fray on the wing as a rolling sub. Paterson banged over his seventh conversion.
He was back on target after it became Henderson's turn to complete his double with five minutes left.
And the stage was clear for Paterson to round off a fantastic performance with his second score – and his ninth conversion to take his points haul past the 30-mark.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Tries: Blair 2, Henderson 2, Paterson 2, Di Rollo, Hall, Pinder
Cons: Paterson 9
Pen: Paterson
For the Barbarians:
Tries: Hanley, Dawson, Marsh
Cons: Malone 2
The teams:
Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell (Edinburgh Gunners), 14 Chris Paterson (Edinburgh Gunners), 13 Marcus Di Rollo (Edinburgh Gunners), 12 Andy Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Sean Lamont (Northampton Saints), 10 Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), 9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh Gunners), 8 A Hogg (Edinburgh Gunners), 7 Kelly Brown (Border Reivers), 6 Jason White (Sale Sharks, capt), 5 Scott Murray (Edinburgh Gunners), 4 Alasdair Kellock (Edinburgh Gunners), 3 Craig Smith (Edinburgh Gunners), 2 Scott Lawson (Glasgow Warriors), 1 Gavin Kerr (Leeds Tykes).
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall (Edinburgh Gunners), 17 Bruce Douglas (Border Reivers), 18 Scott MacLeod (Border Reivers), 19 Donald Macfadyen (Glasgow Warriors), 20 Sam Pinder (Glasgow Warriors), 21 Gordon Ross (Leeds Tykes), 22 Simon Webster (Edinburgh Gunners).
Barbarians: 15 Steve Hanley (Sale Sharks & England), 14 Leon Lloyd (Leicester Tigers & England), 13 Will Greenwood (Harlequins, England & British Isles, capt), 12 Sonny Parker (Ospreys & Wales), 11 Lee Robinson (Bristol), 10 Chris Malone (Bath), 9 Jason Spice (Ospreys), 8 Dan Browne (Northampton Saints), 7 Jason Forster (Dragons & Wales), 6 Kieron Dawson (London Irish & Ireland), 5 Hottie Louw (Llanelli Scarlets & South Africa), 4 James Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), 3 John Davies (Llanelli Scarlets & Wales), 2 Pieter Dixon (Bath), 1 Kevin Tkachuk (Glasgow Warriors & Canada).
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam (Gloucester & France), 17 Simon Miall (Harlequins), 18 Darren Crompton (Bristol), 19 Bobby Skinstad (Richmond & South Africa), 20 Jake Rauluni (Bristol & Fiji), 21 Kevin Maggs (Ulster & Ireland), 22 Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Dave Pearson, Robin Goodliffe (both England)
Television match official: Rob Debney (England)
