Scotland set to take on Georgia as 6N warm-up

SCOTLAND are set to play Georgia at BT Murrayfield on 24 October – a week before their rearranged Six Nations game against Wales.

The match has yet to be officially ratified by World Rugby then announced by the Six Nations as part of an expanded autumn international window, but even if the Georgians were to pull out unexpectedly, Gregor Townsend’s side are certain to have some sort of home international on that weekend.

Continuing Covid-19 restrictions mean it is as yet uncertain whether any paying spectators will be able to attend the game at the national stadium. The same concern applies to the Wales match, which is expected to take place at an as-yet-undetermined London venue as the Principality Stadium is still on standby as a field hospital.

Scotland and Georgia met twice last year in Rugby World Cup warm-up games, with the Scots winning 44-10 in Tbilisi at the end of August then 36-9 at Murrayfield a week later. They would be strong favourites to win again this time, although the physical challenge posed by the Georgians would still make them ideal opponents against whom to warm up for the Wales game.

The scheduling of the Georgia fixture is the latest addition to an extremely busy schedule for rugby in the northern hemisphere over the coming months, with the current PRO14, Champions Cup and Challenge Cup campaigns all due to come to a climax before the opening of the international window. Scotland are due to have just a single week off after the Georgia and Wales games before they embark on the Eight Nations Tournament, in which they have been placed in the same pool as France, Italy and Japan.

England, Fiji, Ireland and Wales are in the other pool. Each team will play against its three pool rivals before the tournament concludes with a final day in which teams in the same position in the two pools play off to determine a final one-to-eight ranking.