Duhan Van der Merwe becomes Scotland's all time leading try scorer

Van der Merwe scored one of Scotland’s five tries in Montevideo, bringing his total to 28 for the national team in just 41 tests, surpassing Montpellier Hérault Rugby’s Stuart Hogg. 

"We're all delighted for him,” Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said. “It's an amazing achievement in such a short space of time, and now he can kick on and score more tries in the future.” 

Van der Merwe has been a key threat ever since making his Scotland debut, which came three years after his move to Edinburgh Rugby in 2017. 

In his two stints for Edinburgh, either side of a year with Worcester Warriors in 2021-22, he has scored 11 tries in 23 EPCR competition matches. 

His record score against Uruguay was perhaps the highlight of the match at Estadio Charrúa, which was not always plain sailing for the much-rotated Scotland side. 

The summer tour was seen as an opportunity to try new players out and bed in a new generation of internationals with Scotland winning all four of their Tests. 

But Uruguay made the tourists work for their win. 

“Look, this has been our biggest test and that’s one of the reasons we came here – to see how this team reacts when they’re under pressure,” Townsend said.  

“I felt the bench did well too, so it shows it’s a squad effort Test rugby, it always is.  

“While there’s some areas to improve, there’s a lot of pleasing aspects and individual performances throughout the tour and again today.”