After two tough defeats to world champions England and fellow powerhouse outfit France in successive weekends, the Wallaroos marked Michaela Leonard's historic 50th Test with a second-half display of power and precision in Edinburgh on Saturday. (Sunday AEST).
Down 10-5 at the break, the Australians, who hadn't won a Test all season, conjured up their best form, scoring three well-worked tries in the space of just eight minutes and going on to rack up 25 unanswered points to dominate their WXV Global Series clash at Hive Stadium, next door to Murrayfield.
It proved a landmark day for two standouts, with 31-year-old lock Leonard becoming the first Wallaroo ever to win a half-century of caps and Desiree Miller scoring their opening try six minutes before the break to rack up 100 Test points.
The 24-year-old Sydney speedster's try still wasn't enough to drag Australia back on to level terms as No.8 Evie Gallagher's 15th minute score, plus a conversion and penalty from Helen Nelson, gave the hosts the interval advantage.
The Wallaroos' post-break resurgence was then stimulated by captain Siokapesi Palu's inspiring rallying cry to her team at halftime.
"The atmosphere was crazy. Going into halftime, the girls knew we had to take it up a notch just to compete with Scotland," explained Australia's player-of-the-match, Faitala Moleka.
"They're a physical team and they were just pumping us at the rucks, but there was a massive mindset shift from the girls, and after a speech from our captain, we came out determined and got that win."
It started in the 50th minute when a powerful rolling maul from the Aussies was cynically brought down just before the line by Gallagher.
It didn't stop Sam Wood from snapping up the ball to burrow over for the score, while Scotland suffered the double whammy of their star forward then being sent to the bin for 10 minutes.
Australia had failed dismally to capitalise on a plethora of French yellow and red cards the previous week but this time, they were ruthless as tries from Brianna Hoy and Moleka against their short-handed opponents then quickly followed three minutes apart.
Loosehead prop Hoy even offered a delightful hint of a dummy before she ploughed over while Miller was electric from the restart, setting up a counter-attack from their own 22 before Moleka provided the robust finish to a grand move.
Wood sealed the victory with a couple of penalties, courtesy of Australia's scrum domination in worsening conditions, as Australia maintained their 100 per cent record against Scotland, who'll face the Wallaroos in return fixtures in Sydney and Canberra next month.
"The girls have certainly been progressing in our performance week to week, so it's a really pleasing way to finish," assistant Mike Ruthven said.
