That first half was good, controlled and mostly accurate, apart from a few turn-overs and that’s what it needed to be against a Georgia side that was coming off a very good win against Samoa.
All the more so because we went five points down to a poor try as a result of a defensive error by Tommy Seymour who came in when he didn’t really need to. Their little scrum-half was sharp, took that try well and was a threat all round the park throughout.
However that just made it even better that we scored with a really well executed move straight off the practise ground which let Tommy Seymour get a bit of redemption and it wasn’t just the backs, the forwards contributed well to that score with Alan Dell getting his hands through the ball really well.
It was a difficult decision for the replay official, but it was probably the right one and we’re scoring tries week-in, week-out now which is really pleasing. We are maybe giving a few too many away as well, but we have the memory of the last time we played Georgia when we needed five Dan Parks penalties to beat them 15-9 to help us realise it is a better brand of rugby we are playing now.
We also took them on physically at times. That scrum which led to the penalty try was important, although we again struggled in the scrums afterwards and that’s still an area of some concern.
We mixed up the attack well too. Sean Maitland’s try came from some great play by Mark Bennett, chasing up really well at the kick off the way other teams have been doing to us and there was some good continuity with eight or nine phases before the winger scored in the corner.
I was impressed with the ground made by Zander Fagerson and Ross Ford who is carrying the ball the way he was a few years ago and I really liked the way we went about it, not too lateral and going to the edges when it was the right time to do so in that first half, playing at a good pace with clever, varied attack. It was telling that Hamish Watson who has been my choice as the stand out Scottish player of the series, was quite quiet and I think that’s because you normally see him because he’s trying to make turn-overs, whereas we were making all the running.
Georgia’s defence was fractured and looked a bit lethargic, which wasn’t that surprising because they must have been out on their feet in that first half when they had so little of the ball.
There was a bit of a contrast to that in the second half when we went wide a bit too quickly, got a bit lateral and made passes that weren’t really on, while it was clear that they got a bit of a roasting from their coach Milton Haig at half-time and in the first 20 minutes after the break it was Georgia who had around 67 per cent of possession.
I was impressed with the character the Georgians showed and they put a lot into that 20 minutes and it is clear they should be getting more exposure. They are above Italy in the world rankings, are investing a lot in their rugby and just need to work on their conditioning.
A lot of them play in France, which is probably a good thing, because they are very physical, but lack a bit of invention in their back play. In three or four years they’ll be a real threat and it is raising the question about whether there should be changes to the Six Nations. Italy won’t be resting too easy and neither should anyone else.
The one thing I don’t think Matty Taylor, our defence coach, will be too happy about is that we gave them too many yards at times and the Georgians got confidence and momentum from that.
However there were a lot more positives than anything else.
It was great to see Ali Price coming on, looking really sharp and keen as you should when you’re winning your first cap, as well as great awareness and not just him either because Rory Hughes did well to get onto his pass and put Hoggy away for the second of his tries that he took really well.
The guys will perhaps be a bit disappointed with that second half because it would have been nice to put 50 or 60 points on them, but the game was won at half-time.
We’ve now just got to put it all together for the Ireland game. They have been playing really well too, but nowadays we can be confident going into that game.
Under Vern Cotter we’re moving in the right direction. I suppose the supporters don’t really care who’s in charge as long as that’s the case, but he’ll be looking for a good finish in the Six Nations.
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