Scotland put behind them the misery of their Test results in New Zealand this summer with a psychologically important victory in a dynamic display that produced six tries. But as an indicator for the match against Australia next Saturday at Murrayfield, the display against the US Eagles will have provided little genuine information, other than that the Scots can cope with a higher velocity approach compared to the rather static rugby they produced on tour in New Zealand.

Ian McGeechan, the Scotland coach, suggested as much: "The game at least put pace and intensity into the players' heads. We had to get used to that kind of pace and not be afraid of it."

The problem for Scotland was that they never really had the chance to play off the opposition, largely because Scotland retained possession for giant chunks of the game, in turn forcing the Eagles into an almost permanent defensive role. To their credit, the Eagles, for the whole of the first half, coped admirably with their defensive chores, preventing Scotland from turning unabated pressure into tries.

"Some of their first-time hits were massive and that put us under a lot of pressure in the first half," said Budge Pountney, leading Scotland for the first time in a Test match. Pountney, however, identified Scotland's weakness in the first half. He said: "We were too lateral and we didn't have the depth of runners."

Scotland, leading 15-3 at the interval through five penalties from Gregor Townsend, constructed a better attack in the second half, and the try by Chris Paterson, which involved at least six supporting players, illustrated the architecture of the reworked Scottish game.

Crucial for McGeechan's success is the return of the New Zealand-born John Leslie at inside centre and Townsend at stand-off, the midfield pairing that was so successful in Scotland's 1999 Five Nations championship win. Between them on Saturday they accounted for 43 of Scotland's points, with two tries each and, for Townsend, a further 23 points from goal kicks in a display that justified the gamble of leaving out Duncan Hodge.

Outside Leslie, new cap Alan Bulloch had an encouraging debut, albeit that the young centre was exposed for a lack of pace in scoring situations. Of the other two debutantes, Simon Taylor performed well with a typically industrious game at number eight, but Jon Steel had little opportunity to show his skills.

The other pleasing aspect of the Scotland game was the way the forwards fared in the scrum, despite giving away almost a stone a man. That should endorse George Graham's credentials as a tighthead, although Gordon McIlwham, one of seven replacements, was useful in the last quarter.

Scotland will announce their side to play Australia (who arrived in Edinburgh yesterday) on Thursday.

Scotland: C Paterson (Edinburgh Reivers); C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers), A Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), J Leslie (Newcastle Falcons), J Steel (Glasgow Caledonians); G Townsend (Castres), B Redpath (Sale); T Smith (Brive), S Brotherstone (Northampton Saints), G Graham (Newcastle Falcons), S Murray (Saracens), S Grimes (Newcastle Falcons), J Petrie (Glasgow Caledonians), S Taylor (Edinburgh Reivers), B Pountney (Northampton Saints, capt). Replacements: S Scott (Edinburgh Reivers) for Brotherstone (75 mins), G McIlwham (Glasgow Caledonians) for Graham (50), R Metcalfe (Edinburgh Reivers) for S Murray (72), J White (Glasgow Caledonians) for Petrie (64), G Beveridge (Glasgow Caledonians) for Redpath (78), D Hodge (Edinburgh Reivers) for Townsend (78), C Joiner (Edinburgh Reivers) for C Murray (68).

United States: K Schuman (New York AC); J Naivalu (San Mateo), P Eloff (Chicago Lions), J Grobler (Denver Barbarians), M Delai (OMBAC); G Wells (Golden Gate), K Dalzell (Clermont Ferrand); J Clayton (Old Blues), K Khasigian (Sydney University), P Still (Golden Gate), P Farner (Roma), L Gross (Roma), D Hodges (OMBAC, capt), D Lyle (Bath), O Fifita (Hayward Griffins).

Referee: P Deluca (Arg).