Scots rocked by three injuries in bruising test
This hard-fought victory over an obdurate Georgian side – which went toe to toe with Scotland for almost 70 minutes – may have come at a punishing price for Scotland. Barely two weeks before Gregor Townsend’s side face Ireland in their World Cup opener, they sustained three potentially serious injuries.
Full-back Blair Kinghorn and second row Ben Toolis both went off with concussion and will need to pass the protocols. However, far more worrying, a serious facial injury to Jamie Ritchie which saw him whisked off to hospital for scans to see if he has sustained a fractured cheekbone or eye socket.
“Jamie Ritchie went off with a facial injury and will be going to the hospital to find out the severity of that,” Townsend said. “That is our most concerning injury. We hope it is not anything that will keep him out of the World Cup.”
Apart from that, this was a job well done, although the scoreboard does not show how close this contest was. Down by just one point at half-time, Georgia provided Scotland with the sort of gritty test Townsend wanted.
At times, Scotland suffered from a misfiring set-piece, fitful accuracy and a lack of discipline. But Townsend was buoyed at the way his side found a way to win, scoring 26 points after the break and exerting a control that was notable by its absence in the first half. It augurs well for when the heat is on in Japan, as does the impressive performances of youngsters Kinghorn, Scott Cummings, man of the match Darcy Graham and George Turner.
It was clear that the Georgians would be no pushovers. With barely five minutes on the clock, tighthead Beka Gigashvili ran through Zander Fagerson and Blade Thomson before a crunching tackle by Jonny Gray dislodged the ball just short of the Scottish line.
The Georgians were not the only ones who were left to rue sloppy handling. On Scotland’s first foray into Georgian territory they moved the ball wide at pace, Kinghorn drawing two defenders before offloading beautifully, only for the usually dependable Tommy Seymour to drop the try-scoring pass.
Kinghorn’s spirit of adventure was soon rewarded though, when he took off from his own half, committed two tacklers and set Graham on his way. He passed out of the tackle to Sam Johnson, whose scoring pass to scrum-half Ali Price rounded off a gorgeously fluent try.
Georgia hit back through a penalty from Tedo Abzhandadze, but thanks to Kinghorn the Scots extended their lead moments later. This time the 6ft 5in full-back benefited from Adam Hastings’s speed of thought, the stand-off ’s crossfield kick gathered by Graham, the wing offloading to Kinghorn as he was being tackled into touch. That try was, however, his last meaningful involvement before a head knock forced his substitution.
For all their fluency and directness, Scotland also made a number of basic errors, Hastings missing both conversions while they gave away a succession of silly penalties. Georgia made them pay, Abzhandadze kicking two penalties to make it 10-9 at half-time. The Georgians carried well in the backs, but their forwards carried with intent and made the set-piece and breakdown a war zone until Romain Poite finally intervened, the referee yellow-carding Fagerson and Mikheil Nariashvili.
Scotland turned the screw after the break. The home forwards piled into the Georgians, grinding forward. It soon paid off; the Scots muscling their way to the line before Hastings popped a short pass to Johnson, who crashed over under the posts. Hastings added the extras, and Georgian wing Zurab Dzneladze was yellow-carded for cynically tackling a player off the ball in an attempt to stop the try.
Holes started to appear. Duncan Taylor threw out a long miss-pass to Chris Harris, who put Graham away in the corner. Three minutes later replacement George Horne skipped around the edge of a ruck and converted his own try, before brother Peter added a completely unrealistic complexion to the score with two minutes to go.
Scores Scotland Georgia Referee