"Winning is everything" said Andy Robinson, the new Scotland coach, before the game against Fiji and so, from his point of view, he was very satisfied with the performance at Murrayfield. Scotland never looked like losing, ground out a convincing win, and will go into this weekend's game against Australia with some confidence.

The result takes us above Fiji in the world rankings which always should be the case if we have any pretensions of being in the top six.
 
Fiji can be a dangerous side but, like their neighbours Samoa and Tonga, their potential tends to be fulfilled only in the run-up to and during World Cups when they have all their top players available and are given adequate time to prepare. The next World Cup is still two years away so they had little chance of having their best team on show. One notable absentee on Saturday was the Leinster fullback Isa Nacewa who has recently been playing so well that Rob Kearney, the Lions fullback has had to sit on the bench. As it was, his place was given to a nineteen year old new cap Josh Matavesi who looked out of his depth a lot of the time.
 
Scotland can be very happy with three main aspects of their play, namely the scrum, the lineout and the individual and collective defence where new boy Alex Grove made an outstanding contribution.

However there must have been a huge sense of frustration at the lack of points being scored in the last fifteen minutes The backs looked ponderous and at times robotic, with only Chris Cusiter looking sharp enough to cut through the visitors' defence.
 
Saturday's opponents will pose completely different questions, certainly with ball in hand. Australian players are amongst the best passers in world rugby, believing in accuracy and in continuity and after three big matches behind them should have plenty of confidence. They are one of the few sides who have tactical kickers in the 10 and 12 positions which will pose questions for our very inexperienced back three unit: the Lamont brothers and Simon Danielli. The latter looked distinctly uncomfortable at times in defence on Saturday.
 
Andy Robinson has asked for a fifteen percentage improvement from his players and that's a big ask considering the efforts put in last week. But he has rewarded those efforts by naming the same team and that is a huge boost to the players. To win, the forwards must carry on where they left off in the scrums and lineouts, concentrate on getting quicker ball at the breakdown and, generally, the backs have to be far more expansive and creative with ball in hand.
 
Australia, by their own standards, are not yet a great side and can be beaten if our players believe in themselves.