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Rugby Union

Scotland see off Portuguese

09/09/2007

Scotland have beaten plucky Portugal 56-10 in their opening Rugby World Cup game at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

The Scots were below par but still scored eight tries thanks to a brace from Rory Lamont while Rob Dewey, Scott Lawson, Hugo Southwell Kelly Brown and Ross Ford also crossed the line.

Some of the Portuguese players burst into tears after hearing their national anthem on their World Cup debut.

Scotland made a bright start and broke the deadlock on 11 minutes when full-back Rory Lamont collected skipper Jason White's pass and touched down.

Fly-half Dan Parks kicked the conversion to give the Scots a 7-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Lamont grabbed his second after bulldozing past Diogo Mateus and Jose Pinto and crossing the line, with Parks kicking over the conversion.

Scotland went 21-0 up on 24 minutes when Scott Lawson gathered Parks' pinpoint cross to dive over the line with the fly-half slotting over the extras.

The crowd in St Etienne erupted on 27 minutes when winger Pedro Carvalho punished some sloppy passing from the Scots to touch down from close range with fly-half Duarte Cardoso Pinto kicking the conversion.

The Scots then scored straight from the kick-off with Rob Dewey barging through two players to score.

Prop Allan Jacobsen suffered a calf injury, and was replaced by Gavin Kerr in the closing stages of the half.

A Pinto penalty from 30 metres reduced the Portuguese deficit to 18 points before Joao Uva was sin-binned for handling on the floor.

Despite being below-par for most of the game, Scotland extended their lead when Parks collected Simon Webster's pass to cross the line.

Webster turned provider again minutes later after dancing past four defenders to set-up Southwell to score in the corner.

Lamont capped off an impressive display by setting up Scotland's seventh try, finished off by flanker Brown.

Replacement hooker Ross Ford completed the rout when he grabbed a bouncing ball and sprinted past the Portuguese defence to score.

Scotland's next game is against Romania at Murrayfield a week on Tuesday.