Australia hung on to beat a spirited Scotland 31-14 in the rugby union Test at Murrayfield on Saturday night.

The unconvincing Wallabies led 28-0 at halftime with four slick tries but Scotland countered brilliantly after the break, the forwards keeping Australia at bay and setting up two tries in the first eight minutes.

The Scots came close to a pushover try in the 43rd minute but winger Sean Lamont dived over after receiving the ball off a maul on the line and replacement fullback Hugo Southwell took advantage of his team's forward dominance to barge over five minutes later.

Chris Patterson converted both tries to make it 28-14 until Matt Giteau scored Australia's only points of the second half with a 60th minute penalty goal to stretch the Wallabies' lead to 31-14.

Giteau landed five goals from five attempts, including three sideline conversions, while Clyde Rathbone scored two tries and Stirling Mortlock and Lote Tuqiri crossed for one each.

Despite scoring 28 points in as many minutes in the first half with some patches of brilliance, the Wallabies looked flat and made far too many handling errors in the slippery conditions, repeatedly giving ball back to the Scots.

But the tries were brilliantly executed, Rathbone scoring twice at the end of sweeping and slick backline moves.

Mortlock opened the scoring after Australia struggled against the determined Scots for the first 10 minutes.

But when they entered Scottish territory for the first time, Rathbone split the defence off an inside ball from Stephen Larkham to send Mortlock over.

Mortlock then returned the favour by sending the winger over and Tuqiri was put over the line in the same right hand corner from a pop pass by halfback George Gregan to make it 28-0.

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