New Zealand-born Shaun Longstaff and Glenn Metcalfe secured two tries for Scotland within the first 12 minutes.

Stuart Grimes added the third before the first quarter of an hour of play - Rowen Shepherd converted all three.

Matt Dowling fought back to get five points for the hosts before the break.

In the second half, Scotland were first to score with a 52nd minute penalty by Shepherd.

But he failed to convert Craig Johnson's fourth try for the tourists minutes later.

In the 56th minute, Brendan Williams scored for New South Wales.

Shepherd came back to take the final penalty four minutes later.

New South Wales captain Michael Brial could not hide his disappointment after the final whistle.

"I'm very disappointed with the way we played," he said.

"We were on the back foot from the start and were trying to play catch-up football after they scored three tries."

Scotland coach Jim Telfer was far happier.

"The boys played with a vibrancy that they haven't shown on tour so far," he said.

The tourists can take heart from their performance ahead of next Saturday's first Test against Australia.