Room for improvement; Alan Campbell reports from Murrayfield as an

A surprisingly large crowd of 34,413 turned up at Murrayfield to watch the first Autumn Test against Romania, but although Scotland scored five tries to one, most of the spectators will have left the ground feeling they were rather short-changed.

It took the home side just six minutes to cross the Romanian line, and they scored their last two minutes from the end of normal time to make the final score 37-10, but in between there was not a great deal to enthuse about in an error-strewn game. Scotland will have to raise their sights considerably for Saturday's match against South Africa at the same venue.

Ian McGeechan's side gorged themselves on possession against a moderate, if stifling, Romanian side, but lacked incision and imagination to take full advantage.

One of the treats for the crowd was supposed to have been watching the powerful running of debutant winger Nicki Walker, but in the event the Borderer hardly touched the ball, never mind got the opportunity to run with it in his hand.

When Scotland's repetitive attacking ploy of using Martin Leslie in the midfield to create time and space failed to produce results, the home side had to rely for the bulk of their points on forward burrowing near the Romanian line which brought tries for Stuart Grimes, Leslie and Budge Pountney. Winger Chris Paterson scored a fine try on the one occasion when Scotland managed to convincingly get the ball along the line, while another debutant, full-back Stuart Moffat, put a gloss on the scoreline at the end, but spilled a certain try-scoring pass deep into stoppage time.

Moffat's fumble also set up the attack from which stand-off Ionut Tofan scored Romania's try midway through the second half, but judgment will have to be reserved on the Glasgow full- back until he plays in a Test against a team with a modicum of attacking intent.

Scotland's lack of cutting edge must alarm McGeechan, although the forwards did well enough, despite being prone to the handling errors which characterised the team as a whole. But Romania were there to be slaughtered, and it just didn't happen.

Naturally the Scotland coach kept his reservations to himself, but did say publicly that his team had just about earned pass marks. "Against a side which was making it difficult to play, I was pleased with the [forward] control we got from the game," he said. "We scored five good tries against an opposition that had obviously come to try and restrict the game to 20 minutes' rugby." Which is McGeechan's way of pointing out the Romanian's determination to disrupt the flow of play at every opportunity.

The coach of the Romanian side, Frenchman Bernard Charreyre, was happy enough with his side's defensive display, and no doubt relieved that his reconstructed side had escaped without a drubbing. The Romanians lost 40-3 to Wales last week, and after the experience of their 134-0 thrashing by England last November, such scorelines as achieved in the last 10 days represent some kind of progress.

Whether, on an afternoon of wall-to-wall football and rugby on television, the majority of spectators regarded their decision to have a late tea as a wise one, is a moot point.

Such is the relentless disruption to traditional kick-off times caused by intrusive broadcasting schedules that the sky above Murrayfield was dark by the time the game kicked off at 4.30pm. And this despite a rare beautiful November afternoon in the capital which was made for running rugby.

When, after Tofan had missed a straightforward penalty to put Romania ahead, Scotland got the early try, the stage should have set the stage for a feast of attacking rugby. The officious refereeing of South African Andy Turner did not help, but it spoke volumes for the tedium in the second half that just about the biggest cheer of the day came when a clearance kick by Romanian full-back Gabriel Brezoianu skittled over one of the large Famous Grouse mascots.

The introduction of Gregor Townsend 10 minutes from the end also raised a buzz of anticipation from the crowd, but such was the scrappiness of the play that the stand-off had no opportunity to dazzle. The man he replaced, Gordon Ross, had a poor game, especially in the first half, and with Brendan Laney successfully taking the kicks he was not able to add to the huge haul of 23 points he had amassed against Tonga in his only international 12 months ago.

Scotland skipper Bryan Redpath, who had a characteristically crafty game, summed it all up when he said: "We were delighted to win, but disappointed at some of the control of the possession." The rustiness, admitted Redpath, was now hopefully out of the system.

At least Scotland came out of the game relatively unscathed, although the rib injury picked up by second-half replacement Mattie Stewart will leave him sidelined for six weeks. Stewart was on the pitch for only 14 minutes, but with and without him the home side scrummaged well, with McGeechan declaring himself satisfied with the performance of the third new cap, prop Bruce Douglas.

The coach did admit that Moffat's late failure to add a sixth try had deprived the crowd of the rousing finale which would have put the Scottish performance in a better light, superficially at least.

Still, these days any kind of Scottish victory in team sports has to be acknowledged, and there was none of the morale damage that a scraped win over the Romanians would have induced. The job was done effectively, if not handsomely or clinically, and now comes the big test in six days against South Africa.

Yesterday's results were good ones for the northern hemisphere with England and Ireland beating New Zealand and Australia, and now the onus is on Scotland to continue the task of restoring European pride.

All the action, pages 2-3

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