SCOTLAND WRAPPED UP their Rugby World Cup warm-up campaign with a 33-6 victory over Georgia at Murrayfield on Saturday, scoring all their points in the second half.
Gregor Townsend’s men were 6-0 behind at the interval but they ran in five unanswered tries in the second period, with wing Duhan van der Merwe grabbing a double to take his Test-match tally to 20.
“Especially first half, Georgia made it really tough for us. They were really physical and put us under pressure,” van der Merwe told Amazon Prime.
“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.”
Scotland, however, next face a formidable challenge when they take on van der Merwe’s native South Africa, the reigning champions, in their World Cup opener in Marseille on 10 September.
The Springboks served notice of their intention to win a fourth men’s global title by beating arch-rivals New Zealand 35-7 in a warm-up match at Twickenham on Friday as the All Blacks suffered the heaviest margin of defeat in their history.
Elsewhere, Italy convincingly beat Japan 42-21 on Saturday in both teams’ final warm-up match before the Rugby World Cup in France.
Monty Ioane scored a hat-trick of tries book-ended by Stephen Varney and Martin Page-Relo scores in a deserved win at a sweltering Stadio Monigo in Treviso.
Tommaso Allan kicked 17 points as the Azzurri won their second straight Test match after hammering Romania last weekend.
Japan scored three unconverted tries through Jone Naikabula, Clermont back Kotaro Matsushima and Dylan Riley, with Lee Seung-sin kicking two penalties.
Kieran Crowley’s Italy have also lost to Ireland and Scotland in their preparations for a hugely difficult Pool A at the World Cup.
Italy have been drawn with hosts France and New Zealand in a five-team pool which also features Namibia and Uruguay.
With two teams going through to the quarter-finals Italy will have to beat either France or the All Blacks if they are to reach the knockout stages for the first time.
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