Scotland put paid to their disappointing early exit at the World Cup Sevens in Dubai by lifting the Plate in a thrilling 21-17 win over Australia.
 
After the shock loss to Canada in their opening pool game – a result which effectively knocked Scotland out of the Cup competition – it was a fine fightback which saw Stephen Gemmell’s team collect silverware in front of 35,000 spectators tonight.
 
Scotland played some intelligent rugby throughout today in Dubai, seeing off France (21-19) and Portugal (29-7) en route to facing the Wallabies in the Plate final.
 
After the final, Scotland coach Stephen Gemmell, said: “Credit to the boys.  They played well today.  We came into what was pretty much a new tournament today, which we wanted to win and we’ve done that.
 
“Bar five minutes against Canada on Thursday we showed we can compete against the best and there’s no reason why we cannot sit at the top table with some of these bigger teams.
 
“I’m not saying ninth (in the final rankings) is where we want to be, but we had to come out and front up after the disappointment of the first game and the boys have done that.
 
“This is a proud moment for me and hopefully a proud moment for everyone else in Scotland and Scottish Rugby.”
 
 In the Plate final, Scotland opened the scoring through Andrew Turnbull who was once again on sizzling form out on the wing, after his try hat-trick in the Plate semi-final triumph over Portugal.
 
From an Australian kick-off, Scotland received the ball inside their own 22 and began to build their attack.  As they continued through the phases, with Roddy Grant threatening on the right, the Scots sent the ball out to Turnbull who evaded his opposite man to touch down close enough to the posts for Colin Gregor to add the conversion.