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Cotter’s team are in fine fettle with 6 Nations on the horizon

HARD HITTING VIEW AT a frosty venue on the west coast of Scotland, the home team gave the visiting Georgians a roasting to conclude the series of autumn internationals, running out convincing winners 43-16.

It was heart-warming to watch, such was the manner of victory as Scotland never looked troubled by their physical opposition.

The tone of the match was set by an incredibly dominant first half by Scotland. The Scots dominated both possession and territory to the extent that by half-time, the tackle count by the home team was less than 10.

And despite conceding an early try, Scotland turned the screw and scored a series of great tries, leaving Georgia all but out of touch by the interval. It was almost impossible for Georgia to come back into the match after such an onslaught.

Yet, as well as dominating the first half, the home team reinforced that by scoring a further try early into the second half which put the game out of sight. The foot may have come off the pedal a little then, but equally Georgia were always going to get some possession and, when they did, they looked dangerous at times.

The more exposure Georgia get to so called ‘Tier One’ nations, the better they will become as a team. They have some fine players but lack the opportunity to be tested against higher-ranked opposition regularly and that is key to their development.

One worrying area for Scotland was, once again, the scrum. Georgia relish that particular aspect of the game and their second try was alarming, given the rate at which Scotland retreated over their own line.

WP Nel remains key to the Scottish pack with his ability to lock out and put pressure on the opponents’ loose head.

The tight head prop is the cornerstone of the scrum – if a scrum is vulnerable there then you come under real pressure and there is a clear gap in class between Nel and his understudies.

Thankfully, there weren’t too many scrums in the first half, which meant that the front row showed up well in loose play but when Georgia got a sniff of the line with a scrum, there was only ever going to be one outcome.

The only other area of concern was the number of turnovers Scotland conceded. Better teams would have punished the home team but Georgia were not in the right class to take advantage of the scraps they had to live off.

So it was exactly the result and performance that Vern Cotter would have been looking for. They will go into the Christmas break with growing confidence and with some excellent tries under their belt. It will have made other nations take notice as the 6 Nations beckons.