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Scotland v Georgia
Scotland left it late to secure their bonus point victory over Romania on Saturday with their 4th try, Simon Danielli's 2nd not coming until the 78th minute of the game. Georgia are yet to play in the tournament so they should have the "fresher" players, even though Scotland have selected a vastly different side to the one which played in their first match. Georgia are a similar team to Scotland's previous opponents Romania in as much as they are historically a team with a very strong forward pack and traditionally a back line that prefer to use their strength to bash through defences and lack a bit of guile. Georgia are ranked just 1 place above Romania in the IRB rankings and once again, similar to Romania their squad consists of players who either play their club rugby in their own domestic league or in the French league system.
Scotland's 11 changes from the weekend mean that all of the players who scored in the victory against Romania miss out on the chance to start this time round. Their key man double try scoring winger Simon Danielli, who also created a try for Mike Blair and the always impressive centre Joe Ansbro don't even make the bench. The man who provided the back line with a physical presence at inside centre Sean Lamont is moved to the wing and Saturday's goal kicker Chris Paterson is relegated to a substitute berth. While Scotland's centre pairing for this game seems to have a touch more creativity than Saturday's combination did the selection of Dan Parks at fly half would appear to point toward a desire to play a more structured and set piece orientated game plan as Parks major skill is his ability to kick tactically and play a very slow paced game. Trying to play a game reliant on set piece dominance against such an experienced Georgian forward pack would appear to be the most difficult way to approach this fixture and while Scotland have picked a more physically intimidating pack than they had on display on Saturday I would have been tempted to select a fly half like Ruaridh Jackson who would be more likely to attack his opponent on the ground rather than through the air. Scotland's scrum struggled under pressure from a very powerful and technically correct Romanian tight 5 and even the Scottish back row looked more comfortable running in the open field than they did having to combat Romania's driving mauls and pick and go's.
None of the back's in Georgia's Rugby World Cup squad play in the French Top 14, 8 of them play in the lower league's in France and the remaining 5 play in the domestic Georgian league. This would appear to the major weakness of a side that will be well drilled and very physical. Since their back's lack experience of top class competition I would expect at least 1 or 2 of the explosive Georgian back rowers to occasionally make an appearance in the back line and I expect Montpellier's near 19 stone powerhouse of a number 8 Mamuka Gorgodze to carry a lot of ball through the 10 channel, specifically in the direction of the undersized Dan Parks. Gorgodze will be a threat inside Scotland's 22 especially from the base of the scrum. Likewise if Scotland kick the ball tactically they will have to kick well and make sure the ball goes, not just into touch but also into the stand because the Georgian's will enjoy the chance to take quick throws and use their big ball carriers from deep. If Georgia can punch a few holes in the Scottish defence early on then Scotland will be forced to use back rowers like Alasdair Strokosch to sure up the defence out wide and Georgia will be able to attack an under strength Scottish pack.
I expect Scotland to win, they are 9 places above Georgia in the IRB, but if Dan Parks isn't on top of his game and the Scottish forwards fail to stamp their authority on the game from the start the Scottish supporters could be in for a very uncomfortable 80 minutes.
Blog by @Buck_Mitchell
