Robinson happy to ‘win ugly’ as Scots prove their point up front

Georgia are ranked 16th in the world and their main threat to Scottish hopes of a second tournament win lay in their ability to turn the screw on the Scottish pack in the same way Romania did for long spells on Saturday, and so stop the Scottish backs from launching incisive attacks.

Though Robinson’s side emerged with a less than convincing 15-6 win – they did struggle to ignite their back line and finished without a try – the pack’s performance in steering Scotland to victory was undoubtedly convincing. Preparing now to leave for Wellington and 11 days of fine-tuning to face Argentina in the third of four pool games, Robinson said: “I thought the front five were outstanding in the way they took on the renowned Georgian pack. Everybody wrote about – and rightly so – the strength of the Georgian scrummaging, but I was delighted with the way we scrummaged today.

“We also stopped Georgia mauling as well which was pleasing – traits that will be important when we go to play Argentina and England. In terms of winning, this was a good performance because that was the ultimate aim again.

“What was key for us was just to get the four points, and that was the key mentality we took into the game.

“I said to the management that when we left Invercargill we wanted nine points, so we’ve achieved that and I thought the guys really stuck to a very good plan today. Some days you’ve got to play this way – you’ve got to win ugly. The key for us was to win the game.” There is no arguing with that and one more win from the two remaining pool games would secure a place in the quarter-finals.

Robinson has played almost two entirely different XVs so far and has a difficult decision on which blend to pick to face the Pumas before meeting England six days later. One player definitely unavailable for Sunday week is one of the stars of last night, the tighthead prop Euan Murray, whose Christian beliefs rule out activity on the Sabbath.

Asked if he would try to speak to Murray about his beliefs, with a view to changing his mind, Robinson replied: “I thought Euan [Murray] played very well and I was delighted.

“The decision’s down to Euan as to whether he plays against Argentina. I’m not expecting him to play.”

On whether he was concerned at failing to score a try, Robinson said facetiously that “we scored four against Romania and got criticised”, which suggested some resentment of the criticism of their disappointing performance before the late rally claimed a 34-24 against the Oaks.

He pointed to the number of penalties conceded by Georgia, which totalled 14 to Scotland’s six, as being as culpable in his side’s failure to take possession through enough phases to reach the try-line as their own errors and the rain.

As was the case after the Romania game, he again questioned with some merit the referee’s failure to show a Georgian a yellow card. Georgia were given a team warning by George Clancy, and Robinson’s counterpart Richie Dixon offered the explanation that it was because the penalties were for different infringements in different parts of the field. The former Scotland coach reckoned that the penalties cost his side more, by ruining the potential for a shock win.

He said: “We felt we could achieve more in this game, but we were our own worst enemies through giving away penalties.

“We knew that Scotland would come at us. I felt that our defence was holding up, they were making half-breaks, but we were still knocking them over. The most disappointing factor was that we didn’t get our own game going because we kept giving away penalties.

“I’m very disappointed and frustrated at the way we gave away those penalties. We were trying to play, playing the blindside and trying to move the ball, but we were on the back foot because of those penalties.

“There was definitely a bit of first-match syndrome. This game was a long time coming and the boys were champing at the bit to get going, but we were our own worst enemies, particularly in attacking plays. Some of our penalties were just over-enthusiasm, but I was still bitterly disappointed that we let Scotland off the hook at times and couldn’t build momentum because we were giving away penalties.”

Dixon always feared that the Georgians would take longer to get into their stride as this was their first outing and Scotland’s second in the tournament, and he agreed with the suggestion that the World Cup draw, pitching Georgia against England in Dunedin on Sunday did his side no favours.

But Dixon, who sang O Flower of Scotland in the Georgia management box before the match, is hopeful of doing his native country a favour by causing both England and Argentina problems. “I certainly hope so. The draw has not been as kind to us as some of the other teams, but you have to live in the real world and there’s no point in being negative about that. The difference in this World Cup is the level that Scotland, England and Argentina are used to playing at, but I think this game will stand us in good stead because we are not as far away as some people believe.

“Scotland played very well but didn’t manage to score any tries against us, and I was really disappointed to lose a bonus point in the last minutes. But that’s the difference between the top teams and ours; there’s a bit of naivety at times. But there’s a lot for us to build on here and hopefully we can have a very strong outing against England”