Jones says Scotland need to beat Australia 'to be taken seriously'
Huw Jones believes the success of Scotland's November international campaign will be judged on whether they beat a rejuvenated Australia at Murrayfield on Sunday.
The Scots saw off a weakened Fiji team and emerging rugby nation Portugal either side of a 32-15 loss to world champions South Africa.
That match saw Scotland, ranked sixth in the world, give the Springboks a scare but they didn't score a try before going down to defeat.
And they now face a Wallabies side fresh from wins over England and Wales this month.
"Looking at the games coming in, we knew obviously the South Africa and Australia games would be the big challenges," said Scotland centre Jones. "We obviously have aspirations to be successful as a team, as a squad and we have to be winning the games against the top seven, eight teams in the world.
"Those are games that we have to start winning now if we really want to be taken seriously.
"It's all well and good beating Fiji and Portugal and winning our games on the summer tour...The South Africa game was disappointing, but we've got to nail it this weekend against Australia."
Is Huw Jones closing on that lions spot? 🏴
— HG Rugby (@HuwGriffinRugby) November 4, 2024
80 mins
116 metres
10 carries
10/10 tackles
9 passes
6 defenders beaten
5 line breaks 🥇
3 kicks
2 offloads
2 try assists
2 tries
What an outing it was in #SCOvFIJ 👊 pic.twitter.com/TPDrw5XLnx
The Wallabies are now eighth in the world rankings, with the team on the rise under coach Joe Schmidt.
"They've been really good," Jones said of Australia's form this month. "They've scored a lot of tries, they've got threats everywhere."
Scotland have won three of their last four meetings with Australia, although they lost by a single point in the last encounter at Murrayfield two years ago.
Jones missed the last two most recent tests between the team so Sunday will be his first match against Australia since the 30-year-old scored a try in a thumping 53-24 win in Edinburgh in November 2017.
"The last time I played them was a while ago, where we beat them by quite a lot!" he said. "But the games more recently I haven't been involved in, but they have been tight."
Jones added: "The South Africa game, there were a lot of positives from it and it was a decent performance in parts, but this is where we want to have that great performance, but ultimately come out on the right side of the score."
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