Hutchinson stakes his claim for Japan

Centre Rory Hutchinson pushed his case for World Cup inclusion with two tries as Scotland saw off Georgia in a bruising warm-up clash in Tbilisi yesterday.

The England-born Northamptonbased 23-year-old, making his first international start, impressed throughout with his pace and movement, scoring in each half as Gregor Townsend’s side ran in five tries.

Scotland, who had lost heavily in Nice against France and then turned the tables on Les Bleus at Murrayfield in their first two World Cup warm-up games, were expecting a huge physical test from Georgia’s renowned pack and head coach Townsend accepted the challenge head on, selecting a strong line-up to keep building momentum towards the World Cup, which starts in Japan next month.

With fly-half Finn Russell pulling the strings, the visitors stormed into a 20-0 lead in as many minutes against the Six Nations hopefuls.

Georgia, desperate to impress on their debut as hosts of a tier one nation, struggled to match enthusiasm with accuracy but did cross for a try in the second half, France-based prop Karlen Asieshvili crashing over following a series of forward drives.

Lock Scott Cummings, another World Cup hopeful and who made his debut against France earlier this month, scored Scotland’s last try.

The Scots, who expected to name their 31-man squad on Tuesday, open their World Cup against Ireland in Pool A on Sept 22.

Georgia, who are ranked 12th in the world, start against Wales a day later in Pool D.