Scotland (10) 10

Tries: Gallagher Cons: Nelson Pens: Nelson

Australia (5) 30

Tries: Miller, Wood, Hoy, Moleko Cons: Wood 2 Pens: Wood 2

Scotland suffered a third successive defeat in the WXV Global Series as clinical Australia proved too strong in Edinburgh.

After losses against Canada and New Zealand – ranked two and three in the world – hopes were high the Scots could get off the mark against the side one place below them in the world rankings.

Despite leading 10-5 at the break, Scotland could not live with the rampant Wallaroos, who ran in three tries in a devastating eight-minute second-half spell to secure a comfortable win.

The sides meet again in Sydney next weekend.

Evie Gallagher, following her two tries against New Zealand last weekend, gave Scotland the lead on 15 minutes, dotting down to round off a period of pressure on the Australian line.

The hosts were on top, with Meryl Smith in midfield and lock Holland Bogan carrying hard and asking questions of the Australian defence, but loose work at the line-out cost Dave Butcher’s team some promising attacking positions.

The Wallaroos grew into the game as the half wore on and hit back with a well-worked try. Scotland repelled a rolling line-out maul close to their own line, but the visitors remained patient and spun the ball wide for Georgina Friedrichs to put Desiree Miller over in the corner.

The Scots hit back immediately when Australia were penalised for holding on straight from the restart, and Helen Nelson banged over a penalty to give her side a five-point lead at the break.

However, Australia flew out of the blocks after the interval and turned the game on its head with three tries in quick succession.

The first came when a rolling line-out maul was halted just short and scrum-half Samantha Wood was on hand to dive over. She converted her own try to nudge the visitors in front for the first time, and it was a double blow for Scotland as Gallagher was sin-binned for illegally bringing down the initial maul.

With the numerical advantage, the Wallaroos came on strong as Brianna Hoy and then Faitala Moleko cut through to score and put the visitors in charge at 24-10.

Wood knocked over a penalty to put Australia beyond two scores and added another late on to cap off a dominant second half from the Wallaroos.

George Russell led from start to finish as he dominated the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The victory reduced the championship lead of his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to 66 points – from 81 – after the Italian finished fifth, although he had recovered from starting 16th on the grid.

Max Verstappen pushed Russell for the win as he took second place, less than two tenths of a second behind. Fellow Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar completed the podium by finishing third on his return to racing following a wrist injury.

Here are my ratings for how the drivers performed across the whole weekend in Baku.

George Russell – 10/10

Pretty difficult to find fault with this one. Fastest on Thursday, produced a stunning qualifying lap to take pole by more than eight tenths and controlled the race before holding off Max Verstappen under huge pressure at the end.

Max Verstappen – 9/10

His eighth place in qualifying looked poor on paper but came with genuine power and energy deployment problems. Charged through the field on Saturday, passed Oscar Piastri for second and pushed Russell all the way to the line. An excellent recovery.

Isack Hadjar – 9.5/10

What a way to return after three races on the sidelines. Out-qualified Verstappen with fourth on the grid, showed excellent pace early in the race and finished on the podium while also playing the team game when Verstappen came through.

Charles Leclerc – 7.5/10

Second on the grid was an excellent qualifying result, although a tow certainly helped him get there. Ferrari simply didn’t have the race pace to stay with Russell and the Red Bulls and fourth felt about the maximum available by the end.

Kimi Antonelli – 7/10

A weekend of two very different halves. Crashing out in Q1 was a costly and unnecessary mistake, but he responded with a patient recovery from 16th to fifth despite picking up floor damage during the race.

Lewis Hamilton – 6.5/10

His qualifying result was hurt by Ferrari’s run plan leaving him without the tow he needed, but sixth in both qualifying and the race still made for a fairly quiet weekend. Solid enough, although Leclerc had the upper hand when it mattered.

Arvid Lindblad – 7.5/10

Recovered again impressively after crashing in practice and starting 15th. Took advantage of the chaos when it came and then stole seventh from Esteban Ocon by the tiniest of margins at the finish. Goes a long way to limiting the grief he might get from punting into his Racing Bulls team-mate at Turn One.

Esteban Ocon – 8/10

A really strong race from the Haas driver after starting outside the top 10. Made some decisive moves as others fell into trouble and briefly looked set for seventh before Lindblad pinched it on the line.

Oliver Bearman – 6.5/10

Good enough to narrowly miss Q3 and stayed in the points despite losing out to Ocon during the race. Contact with Antonelli at the first restart was a slightly messy moment in an otherwise useful result for Haas.

Carlos Sainz – 6/10

The pace was encouraging and ninth in qualifying would have been Williams’ best grid position of the season but failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags earned him a five-place grid penalty. Recovered from as low as 19th in the race to grab the final point.