This provides championship platform, says Vern

HEAD coach Vern Cotter believes that the autumn Test series has set Scotland up for a big Six Nations after his side signed off with a thumping win over Georgia at Kilmarnock.

His team bounced back from a gutwrenching 23-22 defeat to Australia, again losing to a last-gasp kick, with wins over Argentina and Georgia to finish the year ranked seventh in the world and in sight of a top-eight place for the 2019 World Cup pool draw made in May. The Six Nations is the next challenge but Cotter is confident that the team will enjoy their best championship in many years.

Of the six-try win against Georgia, Cotter agreed: ‘The job was done during a good first half where we scored three very good tries.

‘We held the ball and kept it away from Georgia so they couldn’t access the game as much as they would

like. We kicked the ball down their end and when they gave it back to us we held onto it, we counter-attacked and scored points.

‘There were pleasing things in the game but by no means did we think we were comfortable at half-time as we knew Georgia would get their hands on the ball.

‘You look at the performance and the players who have come in and taken part in those performances, like Allan Dell, Zander Fagerson and Hamish Watson, players who had their first taste of international rugby.

‘If you add a few others to that — Rory Hughes got out there today as did Ali Price — there have been good performances from players who’ve had the opportunity.

‘That provides strength in depth and makes us scratch our heads a bit more when it comes to selecting teams, and that’s a good thing.’

Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw added: ‘If I’m being honest, I’m still upset by the Australian game, because as a group we believe we were good enough to win that and so were disappointed to let it slip away.

‘But that game’s gone and we’ll never get it back, so we need to prepare now for the Six Nations and we can take a lot of confidence from this. We need to have an honest review and make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

‘But what the autumn has told us is that we’ve got an attack that can trouble anybody, our defence is everimproving and we now believe we can win any game we’re going into.’

Georgia coach Milton Haig said his side were disappointed by their first-half showing, but called again for the leading nations to consider inviting Georgia into an expanded Six Nations.

‘They [Scotland] have come off big games against Australia, which they should have won, and Argentina, who are both Rugby Championship teams,’ he said, ‘and we’ve come from Japan and Samoa, and that showed in the first half — the gap between where we’ve come from and where they’ve come from.

‘And that’s the challenge for us. That was only our second match against tier-one opposition in 13 years outside the World Cup, and we go back to playing Germany and Belgium in the spring and Scotland play in the Six Nations.’