SCOTLAND spanked the Yanks as they got their autumn international series off to a flier at Murrayfield.
Gregor Townsend’s side ran in 13 tries, with Darcy Graham bagging a hat-trick to move level with Duhan van der Merwe as the country’s all-time try scorer.
Jamie Dobie also claimed three scores, with van der Merwe marking his 50th appearance with a double.
Dylan Richardson, Kyle Rowe, Stafford McDowall, George Horne and Ollie Smith all got over the line too as Scotland landed their biggest ever Murrayfield win.
The USA barely fired a shot in anger in this one-sided hammering – with even the home fans groaning when they messed up a chance late in the game.
But the difficulty now goes up massively for Toony’s troops with the All Blacks up next at Murrayfield on Saturday.
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The game was all but over as a contest within the first 10 minutes as Scotland ran in three early tries.
Richardson claimed the first from the scrum after the pack had got close to the line.
Van der Merwe then owed a debt of thanks to Edinburgh team-mate Liam McConnell for his first.
The debutant selflessly passed inside to his team-mate rather than trying to score himself.
Scotland were already on easy street and a third try underlined their superiority.
Adam Hastings was the creator, whipping a looping pass wide for Graham to score in the corner.
This was turning into an ass whooping for the Americans.
And when they finally got close to the Scotland line they knocked on.
The hosts showed them how as they bagged a fourth try after 20 minutes.
Dobie started and finished it, playing a neat kick over that Graham collected.
The winger burst forward before feeding to Dobie who strolled in.
It was all too easy for Scotland and they soon had their fifth score.
It was van der Merwe who got it again with a trademark run down the line.
And when US winger Toby Fricker tried to stop him the flier just brushed past him to score.
What they said
Gregor Townsend:
“The players really worked hard for each other. It’s great there was such a big crowd tonight, and they got to see our strengths. We’ve obviously got a few very talented guys in our team. I’m sure there’ll be other people tonight wishing they were playing. One, because playing for Scotland is the ultimate, but also just the way the game went.
“Players were able to get on the ball and show their skills. We’ve got to look at tonight’s performance, we’ve got to look at where we were coming into this tournament and how the guys performed at training this week. Because part of next week’s performance against New Zealand, and us getting it right, is the cohesion.
“I can’t wait for that game actually. We don’t get to play them that often. I think we’ve only played twice at my time and they were both great occasions, very good games. We know we have to be close to our best to win but that’s what we’ll be working on in training this week.”
Captain Stafford McDowall:
“It was great fun. I think we talked about it before the game, just going around and everyone focused on doing their own role. It was obviously a special day for Duhan on his 50th cap and the boys getting their debuts. We wanted to make it a special day for them and I think you saw the effort and the physicality of the boys playing when we did that”
Try number six wasn’t far behind it and again it went to Dobie.
McDowall spotted a gap and burst through it before setting up his team-mate.
There was still time for the home side to land their seventh before the break.
Rowe’s first-time flip found Graham who strolled over for his second.
It was a similar story in the second half as Graham and Smith traded passes for the winger to claim his hat-trick.
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Dobie found Rowe for No.9 and there was still time for Ross Thompson to set up McDowall for the tenth, before Rowe supplied the pass for Horne for the next.
Dobie completed his hat-trick before Smith got on the scoresheet with the 13th.
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