Scotland survive Georgia injury fears - the crowd squinted through gaps in fingers, hoping no one would be smashed

The instruction before the game had been polite but still managed to send a shiver down the spines of Scots of a certain age.

An explosive moment as Jamie Ritchie is tackled in the air by Georgia's Akaki Tabutsadze, the Scotland captain reacting angrily to the incident

“After the final whistle the players will take a lap around the pitch … we encourage all match-goers to stay in their seats and send off the team in style.”

Remember Argentina 1978? Our World Cup-bound footballers circling Hampden on a bus, not playing a game for the crowd who’d been charged admission and simply waving from the top deck?

At least at Murrayfield there wasn’t a bus. Or any bubble perms. And there was a game. But was this a good idea?

Maybe not a crazy idea of the sort dredged up for much gloomy humour down the years - intentional or not, Hampden looked like a pre-tournament victory parade - but still: somebody could get hurt out there.

Risky, although necessary. Yes, there could be injuries but the team required serious preparation. You cannot go into rugby’s World Cup against the fearsome might of South Africa after a full month of nothing more than light weights in the gym, listening to the coaches talk and Netflix and chill.

So who were the Scots playing? Lady Cynthia Blenkinsop’s Finishing School (no offence, girls, please don’t write in)? Camberwick Green 3rds? Bottom-ranked South Korea? No, Georgia, no 11 on the chart.

The crowd must have been squinting at the game through gaps in their fingers, hoping that no one would get smashed. And - no offence to the rest of you guys, please don’t write in - certainly not Finn Russell.

The playmaker - our “most valuable” - thudded into some prime Georgian beef in the opening minutes but thankfully it wasn’t the hulking great lock Konstantine Mikautadze, the biggest man on the park.

It was a quiet beginning. The loudest cheers came when the cameras zoomed in on the actor Gerard Butler. Maybe the fans closest to him could have asked if he fancied a game in the front row - real he-man stuff for a change and not just pretend - to give one of the regulars a rest.

Alongside Russell was Ben White, just returned from an ankle knock. Like Russell, like all the backs in fact, he seemed to be getting the ball away with extra zip, as if they wanted the match over as quickly as possible, though this could have been an optical illusion brought on by the high anxiety.

When the Scotland physio was summoned midway through the first half for WP Nel some in the stands might have been wondering if the contest could revert to touch rugby rules. But head coach Gregor Townsend had already told his men they needed to be “very physical” in their final warm-up. Hold something back and they could still come off bad.

Football in certain circumstances - friendlies and testimonials - can be “After you, Claude” and players will skip out of tackles. But rugby cannot do this. Mimicking the wrestling shown on ITV’s World of Sport back in the day - choreographed pretend hits, pure pantomime - would just look ridiculous.

So Scotland thundered into the opposition 22 - it had taken them almost half an hour to do this for the first time - and tried to wrest back the lead. There was nothing for it. Get down low - lower than Owen Farrell, which admittedly isn’t saying a lot - and hope for the best.

At least Darcy Graham, nursing a strain, wasn’t out there and hopefully the mighty atom on the wing has been ordered not to operate any heavy machinery - really, even an egg whisk and nail clippers should be off-limits - between now and the showdown with the Springboks.

But every time Huw Jones was clobbered the crowd winced and gasped. Same if it was Sione Tuipulotu being abruptly halted by one Georgian and another piling on top. Watch it, man! Don’t you know we’ve got a near-impossible task in France in just two weeks’ time?

Georgia, though, weren’t in Edinburgh to be gormless stooges like the Harlem Globetrotters’ fall-guys, only there to make the basketball stars look spectacular. In the match programme not one of them was smiling - though some spectacular moustaches were on show - and on the pitch they seemed to mean business, rather fancying a shock victory.

They led until seven minutes into the second half. Maybe surprisingly there were no substitutions at the break and the likes of Russell and Duhan van der Merwe stayed long enough to turn the game, the stand-off’s sweet chip-pass sending the winger into the corner.

And then Russell’s work was done, the Scots replacing a third of the team in one go. More changes followed but the captain remained and it was Jamie Ritchie who had to withstand the most potentially dangerous clash when he was hauled backwards in the air as he attempted to catch a high ball. After crashing awkwardly to the turf he then engaged in a full and frank exchange of views with Akaki Tabutsadze, neither man refusing to back down or let go of the other’s shirt collar.

Ritchie could have warned his opponent: “I’ll get Gerald Butler onto you. He led 300 Spartans into the Battle of Thermopylae, you know - against impossible odds.” But Scotland last night didn’t need help as they began to contemplate their impossible odds, according to some, for a sensational advance from the World Cup’s Group of Death. They didn’t need crash helmets or foam suits or even letters from their mums. They’re tough, tough guys.