Scotland were brilliant in last ten minutes, claims Danielli

Danielli touched down after 75 and 78 minutes as Scotland responded from falling 24-21 down with 12 minutes remaining against Romania in their opening game of the tournament at Rugby Park Stadium.

Scotland have the opportunity to get the unconvincing performance out of their system quickly when they meet Georgia on Wednesday.

Danielli said: “As a team we’re obviously not delighted with our performance, but in the last ten minutes we were brilliant under the most pressure we could have been under, staring a potentially shock defeat in the face.

“There’s lessons to be learned, but we got the bonus point and got the win and know we’ve got a tough task ahead of us in this next game.

“Right now I think everyone wants to get back out again. We’re under no illusions. Georgia will be licking their chops and will be dying to get into us.

“We’re going to have to come back out and kick off where we left off in the last 10 minutes.

“We’ll look at all the negatives, but I think we have to look at it positively as well.”

The major plus point for Andy Robinson and his squad was that they emerged from the contest with the full haul of points.

Scotland appeared to be coasting after 21 minutes following tries from Mike Blair and Joe Ansbro, but Danielli spurned an opportunity for a third early score. Rather than pass outside to Chris Paterson, who finished with a 14-point kicking haul, Danielli attempted to cut inside, only to be halted by Romania’s cover defence.

“We scored a couple of good tries and should have scored another if a silly winger hadn’t tried to step inside and go under the posts,” Danielli said. “We were points up and credit to them they clawed their way back into it. It’s about being more ruthless.

“It’s nice to score tries, but I’m fairly hyper-critical – I wish it had been a hat-trick.”

Prior to Danielli’s late scores, Romania sensed an upset – and a first win over Scotland in 20 years.