Georgia 10-44 Scotland: Hutchinson double gives Townsend’s men rare away win

Rory Hutchinson scored two tries on his first Test start as Scotland cruised to a 44-10 victory over Georgia in their Rugby World Cup warm-up match in Tbilisi.

In the last game before coach Gregor Townsend names his final squad of 31 on Tuesday, Hutchinson boosted his chances of tournament selection with a fine display that helped Scotland to their first away win in 14 months.

Prior to the match, Townsend and star man Finn Russell defended the decision to name a strong XV for the contest, despite losing Sam Skinner for the World Cup in an injury picked up in last week’s home win over France.

While there were 10 changes, Hamish Watson, Greig Laidlaw and Russell all started, while hooker Stuart McInally returned to captain a side containing many players expected to be on the plane to Japan.

FULL TIME | A confident performance in defence and attack from Scotland in a historic match against Georgia, to give us the win in Tbilisi! #AsOne pic.twitter.com/i4NsIKX9Zq

— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) August 31, 2019

Scotland, the first tier-one nation to play a Test in Georgia, produced a much better performance than in their last away game, the humbling 32-3 defeat to France in Nice for which they took revenge in Edinburgh.

They led Georgia 23-3 at the interval after Ben Toolis and Hutchinson dotted down inside the first 19 minutes.

They raced clear in the second half, with centre Hutchinson scoring his second before Darcy Graham and Scott Cummings went over, the latter getting his first international try.

Laidlaw had 15 points with his boot to supplement a five-try display, with Karlen Asieshvili scoring Georgia’s only try just before the hour mark.

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