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Scotland see off Georgia with second-half surge

Scotland's Ali Price scores during the first half versus Georgia at Murrayfield (Photo by Robert Perry/Getty Images)

Scotland have beaten Georgia 36-9 in their final World Cup warm-up match at Murrayfield, following up their win in Tbilisi last weekend over the same opposition. 

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Gregor Townsend had opted to wrap up a number of his key men in cotton wool as he left them out of his squad for World Cup send-off ahead of their tournament opener against Ireland in Yokohama on September 22.

Skipper Stuart McInally, Fraser Brown, John Barclay, Greig Laidlaw, Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg were all spared action before the squad departs for Japan on Monday.

Glasgow’s Ryan Wilson skippered the national team for the first time while Jonny Gray returned from a hamstring strain to make his first appearance of the warm-up series.

After Ali Price touched down, Blair Kinghorn dived over for Scotland’s second score after Adam Hastings and Scott Cummings led a charge, with Darcy Graham playing a crucial role in the build-up too.

But Hastings’ failure to convert either of the tries meant Scotland’s lead was not as big as it might have been and a trio of Tedo Abzhandadze penalties saw it trimmed back to 10-9 at the interval.

Scotland continued to apply pressure and scored again through Sam Johnson after 50 minutes following some decent spadework by the pack. Scotland completed a 36-9 romp with further tries from man of the match Darcy Graham, George Horne and his brother Peter.

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But there was cause for concern late on as lock Ben Toolis was helped off after suffering a worrying head knock and Townsend will now be sweating on his fitness ahead of their World Cup opener with Ireland in little over a fortnight’s time.

– Press Association 

WATCH: The trailer for the new RugbyPass documentary with the Tongan national team before their World Cup campaign begins

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Flankly 51 minutes ago
Maro Itoje: What was said as Lions fell 'far behind' on scoreboard

This is what dreams are made of

Umm. Credit to a winning team, but to be clear … the team you beat is ranked 6th in the world, did not make it out of the pool stage of the last RWC, and came last in the 2024 Rugby Championship. Not sure any bookie has them as favorites for the 2025 RC either.


Australia have made progress for sure, and of course that matters. But for a team made up of 4 leading rugby nations, including two that are ranked much higher than this opposition, a win is expected and a loss would be humiliating. Furthermore, with weeks of playing together, planning together and living together it is hard to argue that the Lions have had less opportunity for cohesion than Australia.


A win is a win, and no-one should question that. But a last-minute one-score win that depended on a 50/50 penalty call is one to humbly accept, rather than to crow about. It was neither a beating, nor even a compelling win. I thought win was not undeserved, but it’s a close call on which was the better team on the day.


And let’s get off this nonsense about it being like a world cup final. The local pub teams may feel that their big game is like a world cup final, but it’s stupid to pretend it is the reality. The RWC final is played by two of the top teams in the world, and there is no evidence that either of these teams fits that description. There is a game in Eden Park later this year between the #1 and #2 ranked teams that would be a lot closer to it, of course.


Well done to the Lions, and congrats to the Wallabies. Let’s enjoy a good game for what it was, without pretending it was something bigger than it was.

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