Scots in late show but win comes
IT was another comfortable win for Scotland over Georgia as they head off to the World Cup but they were made to work for it by an aggressive Georgian side and have the worry of seeing three players going off for head injury assessments just two days before they take the plane to Japan.
The problem with the injuries to Blair Kinghorn, Ben Toolis and Jamie Ritchie – who looked the most serious of the trio and will head for hospital – is that head injuries are always tricky to judge. There is no way of knowing how long they will take to heal, causing uncertainty over the travel plans.
Remember the main aim of the game had been to get the players out on the field, before they go to the airport on Monday to start their Rugby World Cup preparations in Nagasaki. Coming through uninjured – or at least with no injury that compromises their ability to face Ireland in 16 days – was the other big focus. It remains to be seen how they fared on that front.
Playing safe accounted for the decision to keep players like Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg, Greig Laidlaw and Stuart McInally – wrapped in cotton wool and strictly in the safety of the stands.
For others, it was a case of getting miles on the clock. Jonny Gray had not played at all during the warm-up campaign, Tommy Seymour lasted 16 minutes, a few others played to only just after half time in the one game they did play. They needed this game to hone their match fitness.
The result was a team lacking the experience in key positions and it showed in a fitful first half before they sprang to life in the second half.
They needed a win as well; there is a huge difference between a team flying round the world carried by a tide of exuberance and one wallowing in their own misery.
After conceding five tries and 44 points at home last week the visitors were bound to be short of confidence so a good start by Scotland and they would be home and dry. Instead we got a strange opening few minutes. Gregor Townsend’s men looked bright enough with the ball in hand, but their indiscipline – a penalty for a neck roll and another for a ruck offence inside the first three minutes – undid their attacking efforts and if Beka Gigashvili, the prop, had been able to hold on to the ball after crashing through the defence it could have been disastrous.
On the positive side, there were a couple of bright bursts from Duncan Taylor and Blade Thomson, both important as they proved their fitness after injuries had kept them out of action for much of the last year and part of the warm-up campaign.
There was even better when a loose kick to Kinghorn gave him the chance to run the ball back with Darcy Graham, pictured, in support to race down the wing. Solid inside support from Sam Johnson was all it took to send Ali Price haring over the line.
The hosts were was less impressive than the opening quarter in Tbilisi, and they were duly punished with Tedo Abzhandadze landing a penalty. When Scotland did get it right, however, they were capable of playing with the same exhilaration, a cross kick from Adam Hastings getting the ball to Graham again, with the strength to stand hard in the tackle and offload to Kinghorn for the second try.
Again, the good work was partly undone by silly mistakes which let the visitors in for two more Abzhandadze penalties before the break to leave the match delicately poised with only a point between the sides at the break.
Just as they had in the first game on their own patch, Georgia came out for the second half ready to throw everything at the Scots but struggled to convert it into a real threat.
With the ball, the Scots were still able to hand out a lesson in converting openings into points with Seymour making the ground to get the defence back-pedalling and with the ball being recycled on the line, Hastings spotted the gap to put Sam Johnson in for the third try.
By now the replacements were starting to come on and the game was breaking up, which played right into Scotland’s hands with Johnson continuing to make a difference as his huge cut-out pass to Chris Harris, who had come on as a wing, created the space for Graham to cross for the try that allowed the Scots to relax.
That opened the floodgates for Scotland who found gaps all over the Georgian defence. George Horne, the replacement scrum half, was the first to take advantage as he nipped through a ruck after Hastings had almost slipped through and then his brother, Peter took advantage of the visitors’ desperation as he collected an attempted attacking chip only yards from their line and had a simple job going over.
That was it as far as the scoreboard was concerned and though there were some encouraging individual performances, those injuries might still make this an expensive night.