Duhan van der Merwe sets record as Scotland beat Uruguay 31-19

Uruguay 19-31 Scotland, Estadio Charrua

Duhan van der Merwe scored a record try as Scotland completed their American tour with a 31-19 victory over Uruguay at Estadio Charrua on Saturday.

Van der Merwe touched down in the 26th minute as he surpassed Stuart Hogg's national record of 27 tries to become Scotland's leading try scorer.

Scotland made a late change to the side as Scott Cummings dropped out due to a foot injury with Gregor Brown taking his place in the starting line up and Ewan Johnson made an entry into the replacements.

After the first 13 minutes went without a point, Scotland made the early breakthrough as Ewan Ashman forced his way over the line at the back of a driving maul.

Uruguay were reduced to 14 players temporarily at the start of the second quarter with Diego Arbelo sin-binned for a tackle on George Horne and shortly Luke Crosbie went over after good work from Matt Fagerson. Ben Healy kicked both the conversions as Scotland raced to a 0-14 lead.

The highlighting moment came in the 26th minute as van der Merwe completed the record try in his just 41st game after collecting a pass from Kyle Rowe but the conversion drifted wide this time making it 0-19.

Despite being down by a player, Uruguay got their first try with scrum-half Santiago Alvarez intercepting a pass from Healy to dot down and at the stroke of half time Felipe Etcheverry also went over as the teams completed the opening half with a 14-19 scoreline.

Both the teams were desperate for breakthroughs in the second half which did not come until the hour mark when Manuel Diana go over the line at the back of a maul to level the scores at 19-19.

Nevertheless, Scotland ensured there was no slip up as Patrick Harrison and Pierre Schoeman scored tries in the 64th and 68th minutes respectively giving Gregor Townsend's men a thrilling 12 point victory.

Team line up:

Uruguay: I Alvarez, Bautista Hontou, Alonso, Inciarte, Freitas, Etcheverry, S Alvarez, Peculo, Pujadas, Arbelo, Aliaga, Leindekar Virginio, Ardao, Bianchi, Deus.

Reserves: Joaquin Myszka, Mateo Sanguinetti, Reinaldo Piussi, Diego Magno, Santiago Civetta, Manuel Diana, Santiago Gini, Joaquin Suarez

Scotland: Paterson, Rowe, Jones, McDowall, Van Der Merwe, Healy, Horne, Sutherland, Ashman, Sebastian, Williamson, G. Brown, Crosbie, Darge, M. Fagerson.

Reserves: Ewan Johnson, Patrick Harrison, Pierre Schoeman, Murphy Walker, James Ritchie, Jamie Dobie, Adam Hastings, Kyle Steyn