Scotland - 14 Australia - 31: Once the dust had settled both coaches, Scotland's Matt Williams and Eddie Jones of Australia, were able to draw considerable satisfaction from a useful workout at Murrayfield.
Williams, who finally seems to be making some progress despite a record which now stands at just one victory from nine Test matches, will take heart from a gritty second-half performance.
He has plenty of reason to cheer after the Six Nations wooden spoonists outscored their opponents 14-3 in the second half, but so too Jones who will take considerable solace from the bruising contest.
Everything was running according to the script at half-time as Australia carved their opponents open with simplistic ease, scoring four tries through Stirling Mortlock, Lote Tuqiri and a brace from Clyde Rathbone.
And with centre Matt Giteau booting all the conversions, Scotland - missing a clutch of their big names such as Scott Murray, Tom Smith and Simon Taylor - were facing another morale-sapping defeat.
But Williams sent out a different side for the second half. They tore into the Wallabies, crossing through Sean Lamont and substitute Hugo Southwell shortly after the interval, and could have added further tries had they shown more nous in turning possession into points.
SCOTLAND: S Moffat (H Southwell 39); S Lamont, G Morrison (A Craig 65), A Henderson, C Paterson; D Parks, C Cusiter (Mike Blair 79), A Jacobsen, G Bulloch (capt, R Ford 79), B Douglas (C Smith 65), N Hines, S MacLeod (A Kellock 70), S Gray (J Petrie 41), D Macfadyen, A Hogg.
AUSTRALIA: C Latham; C Rathbone (W Sailor 56), S Mortlock (M Rogers 73), M Giteau, L Tuqiri; S Larkham (E Flatley 73), G Gregan (capt, B Young (M Dunning 70), J Paul (B Cannon 80), A Baxter, J Harrison, D Vickerman (M Chisholm 78), G Smith, P Waugh (D Lyons 44), J Roe.
Referee: S Walsh (New Zealand).
