Townsend still in search of 80-minute "dream" performance

EDINBURGH : Scotland’s search for the full "80-minute performance" goes on as they stumbled and stuttered in the first half of Saturday’s 33-6 win over Georgia, before scoring five tries in the second period to cruise to victory at Murrayfield.

It was, in the end, a comprehensive final Rugby World Cup warm-up win for the hosts, but coach Gregor Townsend admits they made it hard on themselves at the start.

"A full 80 (minute performance) is a dream and a goal," he told Amazon Prime. "That doesn't mean that you're going to be scoring points, and the opposition don't score any.

"They (Georgia) were very good in contact in the first half and they stopped a lot of our attacks. Weirdly, that was a better preparation for us than scoring tries in the first half.

"We showed a lot more accuracy in the second half, but the work we did in the first tired them out."

Townsend made a raft of changes early in the second period and he was pleased to be able to give players a run.

"We saw a big effort from the bench, which has been the case right throughout this warm-up series, which is really pleasing," he said.

He was also happy to come through the physically bruising encounter with no fresh injury issues.

Scotland open their World Cup campaign against world champions South Africa in Marseille on Sept. 10, and Townsend knows it is a daunting task in the wake of the Springboks’ record 35-7 win over New Zealand at Twickenham on Friday.

"That's one of the best performances I've seen from them over the last few years, and if they play like that against us, we'll have to bring our best ever game to beat them," he said.

With Ireland also in the pool, Townsend says the game against South Africa has plenty riding on it.

"We'll get better with more time