Scotland in command as they brush Georgia aside at Rugby Park
SCOTLAND 43 GEORGIA 16
SCOTLAND seemed surprised by how straightforward this win was.
Georgia have dominated the second tier of international rugby, and came to Kilmarnock looking to put in a display that would “start a discussion” about them joining the Six Nations.
Instead of that, they were disappointingly poor and after running in four tries in the first half, three within the first 20 minutes, Scotland found themselves wondering what to do in the second, bookending a fairly mundane 40 minutes with two further touchdowns.
It’s difficult to see exactly what the Scots learned from this fixture.
Greig Laidlaw was faultless with the boot, racking up 13 points, while Tommy Seymour, Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg added to their try tallies but we already knew the danger they pose.
The first of Hogg’s two tries was a solo beauty as he gathered his own kick ahead after the bounce made a fool of the defence, and another of his chips created Seymour’s early score.
Hamish Watson rounded off an
impressive autumn series at openside with his first international score, peeling around the front of the lineout, and the other score was a penalty try awarded when the pack mauled their Georgian counterparts over the line, Konstantine Mikautadze being sinbinned in the process.
This was really the only area in which Scotland got much of a workout. The Georgia pack is a big old unit and we were expecting a bit of a battle up front, especially at scrum time, but the Scots eight – rookie front row and all – had the upper hand throughout.
Pick of the pack was Ryan Wilson, who was rightly named Man of the Match after an eye-catching performance.
It was his kind of game and he was relishing the chance to run into the Lelos’ big men with ball in hand and the No. 8 was involved in everything, including a first- half tussle when he took on three Georgians single-handedly.
Georgia complained that staging this game at Rugby Park instead of BT Murrayfield was an insult to them but Vern Cotter paid them the compliment of picking his strongest available side to avoid a potential banana skin and ensure world ranking points.
And as the afternoon progressed this increasingly looked like a missed opportunity in terms of experimenting and increasing“fringe” players’ international experience.
Ali Price, the only uncapped member of the squad, finally got off the bench after warming it for the past two games but then he got just the last six minutes, though that was time enough to set up the last try for Hogg with a quick tap penalty.
Georgia’s livewire scrum- half Vasil Lobhzhanidze had given his side a fifthminute lead that was, apart from a brief spell in the second half when he notched a second after his pack shoved Scotland over their own line, their only flourish.