Tale of two halves as Scotland beat Georgia 33-6 in final warm-up

EDINBURGH :Scotland's wing Duhan van der Merwe scored two tries as they changed gears in the second half to set off for the Rugby World Cup in France with a 33-6 victory over Georgia at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The visitors led 6-0 at halftime but the floodgates opened for the Scots in the second period as they began to find space in wide areas. Wing Kyle Steyn, flanker Rory Darge and number eight Jack Dempsey also crossed for tries.

Georgia’s points came from the boot of flyhalf Luka Matkava and they showed plenty of energy and organisation on defence in the first 40 minutes but could not sustain their effort after the break.

They also have a concern over experienced hooker Shalva Mamukashvili, who limped off just before halftime in his 100th test.

Scotland face South Africa in their World Cup Pool B opener in Marseille on Sept. 10 and will have to be vastly improved on this showing. They also play Ireland, Tonga and Romania.

"Especially in the first half, Georgia made it really tough for us," Van der Merwe told Amazon Prime. "They were really physical and put us under pressure.

"It was important for us to squeeze them up a bit - if our forwards get gain-line then it's much easier for our backs to go wide. We can take confidence from the second half."

Georgia frustrated Scotland with their defence but in the opening 20 minutes had chances for tries themselves. They had to settle for two penalties as Scotland infringed at the breakdown.

The hosts lacked cohesion as they pushed for a try, with a high error count that will be frustrating for coach Gregor Townsend.

But it was a different story in the second period as they began to stretch a tiring Georgia defence and that created the space for the Scots to attack the try line.

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