Australia told they must improve after clinging on to beat Scotland

Victory will lift confidence at the start of the Wallaby’s tour of Europe but their Murrayfield performance was underwhelming

For much of his reign as the Wallabies head coach, Dave Rennie has urged the rest of us to focus on his team’s performance rather than the scoreboard. Wins and losses are how most elite sports teams are measured, but the patterns and shapes mattered just as much. At least that’s been the message from the man in charge.

Not this time. A messy and disjointed affair, littered with handling errors and misplaced passes, ended with Australia edging a contest that they probably should have lost. They conceded more tries, made less carries into contact, lost the battles for possession and territory, were forced to make more tackles and coughed up the ball more often when they had it.