Gregor Townsend says Blair Kinghorn will learn from last-gasp penalty miss

Gregor Townsend backed “hurting” Blair Kinghorn to bounce back from his costly late penalty miss in Scotland’s agonising 16-15 defeat by Australia at BT Murrayfield.

The 25-year-old Edinburgh fly-half had a chance to win a topsy-turvy autumn Test in the last moment of the game but watched in despair as his kick from 40 yards drifted just left of the posts.

Townsend admitted it was a sore one for Kinghorn, who had scored a magnificent try earlier in the match to put the Scots in front.

“For him, obviously it’s going to hurt,” said the head coach. “That’s sport. The width of a post decides whether you win or lose sometimes. He’s been kicking very well for us.

“He doesn’t kick regularly at his club, but a few number 10s don’t kick regularly. He’ll use this as a learning, so that next time he gets that chance he knows what to do technically.

“He can’t think about the fact it was a kick that didn’t go over in the last minute. It’s about what you learn from it. Do you need to keep the head down longer? Is it the follow-through? What technical thing do you need to work on?”

Another key moment in the game was Scotland substitute Glen Young’s 56th-minute yellow card – following a TMO review – for catching Tate McDermott in the head while trying to clear out a ruck situation.

“I was in the coaching box and (coach) Steve Tandy said, ‘Oh, we could be in trouble here’ and I said, ‘No, it’s a world-class clear-out’,” said Townsend. “It was brilliant to see someone sprinting to get with the ball-carrier.

“In his second game for Scotland, Glen was a millimetre away from the best clear-out you’ll see to hitting the smallest guy on the field in the head. I said to Glen, it was a world-class bit of play that became a yellow card.

“Glen’s was a very good clear-out but his bicep caught the Australia player in the shoulder and chin, so that’s what deemed it a yellow card.

“It was a massive part of the game, not just because of the yellow card. We didn’t score the try from the break, but we would have had a scrum five yards from their try-line, so to go from having them under that pressure to having a penalty against us and a yellow card, it was a massive part in the game.

“We think we should have won it, but it doesn’t really matter what we think because we didn’t win. But I was proud of the how the team played and delighted with how they responded when we went behind.”

“There was a hell of a lot of noise in the crowd, I thought it was over,” said Rennie. “There must have been a lot of Aussies or a lot of drunk Scotsmen in the stands.

“We’re happy to hang on. I’m proud of the effort, because at 15-6 we gave up a soft one straight after half-time, but we fought our way in and got our nose in front.

“We can be a lot better. But there’s been a lot of hard work from a lot of people and it was nice to get a result for the group.”