Scotland ran in eight tries past brave Georgia at Issoire to win 46-14 and set up a final play-off clash with Fiji to decide ninth and 10th places.
Playing in temperatures approaching 30 degrees, the Georgians relied heavily on their powerful pack and the boot of fly half Malaguradze to keep them in the match but the Scots were soon into their stride.
Their barrage of unanswered first half points started with a try after five minutes from Iain Kennedy, converted by captain David Blair. Cameron Johnston then scored two before Ben Cairns went over on the stroke of half time for a 26-0 lead.
Before the Georgians had taken stock of the restart, the Scots were back in the scoring habit as Kyle Traynor went over. Greig Laidlaw then added his name to the score sheet and full back Colin Goudie celebrated his first match for Scotland at this level with a try in the 60th minute.
Georgia were then awarded a penalty try after a brief and rare spell in Scotland’s 22, before John Barclay scored in the 72nd minute. The Georgians did, though, have the last word adding another converted try in the last move of the game to make it 46-14.
Quotes
John Jeffrey, Scotland manager: It was a good performance but we tired in the last 20 minutes. Scoring eight tries at international level is good, but when we were seven tries up at that time, we should have turned the screw. Hopefully the win will put juice in the tank for the big, strong, fast Fijians who will ask questions of us as they did of Italy. We’ll have to be at our best to beat them.
David Blair, Scotland captain: We’re pleased to have got the win in spite of our mistakes. We attacked well on the whole and our ball retention was okay. Now we want to beat Fiji to finish as well as possible.
David Chavleishvili, Georgia coach : Lots of our most important players were injured prior to the match so we did what we could. We’re not disappointed as this tournament is our first at this level. We’ll do everything to win our last match against Italy.