Ex-Howe of Fife pair George Horne and Matt Fagerson help Scots end tour on high
Ex-Howe of Fife players Matt Fagerson and George Horne helped Scotland’s national rugby team round off their 2025 summer tour of New Zealand and Fiji with their first victory ever at the former’s Eden Park ground in Auckland last Friday.
Head coach Gregor Townsend’s tourists, captained by Glasgow Warriors openside flanker Rory Darge, beat Samoa 41-12, thanks to tries from outside-centre Rory Hutchinson, left-winger Arron Reed, right-winger Kyle Steyn, lock Grant Gilchrist, full-back Kyle Rowe, hooker Ewan Ashman and replacement George Turner, with fly-half Fergus Burke adding two conversions and substitute scrum-half Horne another.
The Samoans’ tries, one of them converted by Jacob Umaga, were scored by Benjamin Petaia Nee-Nee and Duncan Paia’aua.
That was the Scots’ second win of their summer series, following a 29-14 loss away to Fiji in Suva six days earlier and an opening 29-26 victory against the Maori All Blacks in Whangarei in New Zealand on Saturday, July 5.
Glasgow Warriors No 8 Fagerson, 27, played for the full 80 minutes for his 57th cap and Horne was brought on at half-time for his 38th, with Glasgow teammate Steyn going off and fellow Warrior Jamie Dobie, at No 9 until then, moving to the right wing to take his place.
Horne’s two-point contribution to Scotland’s score takes his international tally to 44 since 2018, 40 of those points having been yielded by tries.
Looking back over Friday’s tour finale, Townsend, 52 – Scotland’s longest-serving head coach to date, having been in post since May 2017 – said: “It was hugely important. You rise to a challenge and you show your true identity when you’ve got that challenge of backing up a defeat, and the players showed that with the way they came together during the week with just a six-day turnaround and one training session.
“It’s been a really enjoyable tour, so it was important we finished with a top performance.”
Making up the rest of Friday’s starting line-up were Stafford McDowall, Elliot Millar Mills, Andy Onyeama-Christie, Gregor Brown and Rory Sutherland and the Scots’ other replacements were Fin Richardson, Cameron Henderson, Marshall Sykes, Ben Muncaster, Nathan McBeth and Adam Hastings.
Fagerson and Horne also played against Fiji, for all 80 minutes and the last 22 respectively, alongside fellow Howe alumnus Jamie Ritchie at blindside flanker for the first 22, but only Horne featured versus the Maoris, for the first 63 minutes, scoring two tries.