AT times it was almost too easy. After all the warnings about Georgia’s strength up front, Scotland made light of their opponents to have this third Autumn Test wrapped up by the interval.

If the visitors’ lack of structure had something to do with that first-half dominance by Vern Cotter’s side, the main reason was Scotland’s own superiority. They fell behind to a shock early score, but, stung into action, they were soon level - then ahead, then further ahead.

Four of their six tries came in the first 40 minutes, in which they were able to nullify Georgia’s main weapons, the scrum and maul. If the second half was less satisfying, it was so only relative to the first.

“The job was done during a good first half where we scored three very good tries,” Cotter said - the fourth being a penalty try. “We held the ball and kept it away from Georgia so they couldn’t access the game as much as they would like.

“There were some pleasing things in the game, but by no means did we think we were comfortable at half-time - we knew Georgia would get their hands on the ball.

They were always going to try and express themselves and we saw that more in the second half.

“They were more balanced and showed they’re a good team. But our boys took the game seriously and wanted to have a big impact on the game early on, which I thought they did.”

They did indeed, but only after Georgia took a fourth-minute lead when, after a rolling maul was halted, Vasil Lobzhanidze touched down in the corner. The scrum-half had actually fumbled backwards when the ball came out, but recovered well, first evading Tommy Seymour who had allowed too much space outside him, and then having the strength to get over the line despite a last-ditch tackle from Greig Laidlaw.

It was a poor score to concede, but Scotland and Seymour quickly made amends. When Ryan Wilson found Stuart Hogg on the left, the full-back chipped ahead and the winger won the race to touch down. Laidlaw converted to put the home team ahead, and they extended their lead before quarter of an hour was up when a rolling maul of their own was stopped illegally. The referee awarded a penalty try, Laidlaw added the two points, and lock Konstantine Mikautadze was yellow-carded for his role in the offence.

Merab Kvirikashvili clawed back three points with a penalty, but Scotland’s tails were up and Sean Maitland got their third try, again converted by Laidlaw, at the end of the third quarter to emphasise their superiority. Good cover defence had denied them the score with their first overlap on the right, but when the ball came back out wide Maitland had the strength to see off two tacklers.

Laidlaw and Kvirikashvili then exchanged penalties, before, with five minutes left in the half, Hogg scored his team’s fourth. His chip ahead looked like being a 50-50 ball, but the bounce evaded the nearest Georgian, allowing the full-back to gather and sprint 40 metres to the line. Laidlaw’s conversion made it 31-11 at the break.

Any notion that Scotland would slacken off in the second half was soon disabused when they took just a couple of minutes to score again. Richie Gray took a clean lineout, and Hamish Watson came round the corner, fending off three tacklers for an impressive score. Laidlaw’s kicking was every bit as impressive and he again turned five points into seven.

Georgia were by no means completely finished, however, and Vasil Lobzhanidze lifted their spirits by scoring his second try off the back of an attempt at a pushover from a scrum. The visitors continued to play relatively better in the second half, but the game lost a lot of its shape and purpose in the last quarter.

Substitute tighthead Moray Low was sinbinned seven minutes from time for an illegal wheel of the scrum, but 14-man Scotland had the last word when Hogg scored off a sudden break. With Ali Price having come on for his debut to replace Laidlaw, Finn Russell took over the place-kicking duties but sent his conversion attempt wide.

There had been a lot of minor dissatisfactions about Scotland’s play after the break, but the important point was that all those failings had only occurred after the hard work had been done and the match won.

“We can only play the game that’s put in front of us,” was Laidlaw’s verdict. “I thought we were tremendous in the first half and we can take a lot of confidence from that.”

Unsurprisingly, Georgia coach Milton Haig offered a diametrically opposed assessment of his own team. “We were disappointed by our performance in the first half and decided we really needed to show what we could do in the second.”

They did that, but it was never going to be enough against a Scotland team who had far too much firepower for them.

Scorers: Scotland: Tries: Seymour, penalty try, Maitland, Hogg 2, Watson. Cons: Laidlaw 5. Pen: Laidlaw.

Georgia: Tries: Lobzhanidze 2. Pens: Kvirikashvili 2.

Scotland: S Hogg; S Maitland (R Hughes 52), M Bennett (P Horne 63), A Dunbar, T Seymour; F Russell, G Laidlaw (A Price 74); A Dell (A Allan 55), R Ford (F Brown 52), Z Fagerson (M Low 55), R Gray, J Gray (G Gilchrist 74), R Harley (J Barclay 48), H Watson, R Wilson.

Georgia: M Kvirikashvili (G Begadze 74); G Aptsiauri (B Tsiklauri 21), M Sharikadze, T Mchedlidze, A Todua; L Malaguradze, V Lobzhanidze; M Nariashvili (K Asieshvili 49), J Bregvadze (B Alkhazashvili 49), L Chilachava (D Kubriashvili 49), K Mikautadze, G Nemsadze (S Sutiashvili 62), V Kolelishvili (G Tkhilaishvili 46), M Gorgodze, B Bitsadze (L Lomidze 52).

Referee: M Carley (England). Attendance: 15,401.