THE Six Nations is more than two months away, but within seconds of their win over Georgia, Scotland's players were already turning their thoughts to the bigger challenge ahead and their determination to get their first opening-day win since 2006.

"We believe we can win every game," said Ryan Wilson, the No.8 and man of the match. "We are in a good place, we have had a couple of good wins in those three Autumn games. We will keep our heads held high and look to carry on the good form.

"There has been a lot of talk about grinding the games out – Australia was tight, Argentina was a tight one too but we won it. We put some stuff together against Georgia in the first half that we were very happy with."

The issue for Scotland is that they have had good Autumn series before, but never been able to hold onto that form into the spring. Beating sides like Australia and South Africa were still followed by one-win RBS Six Nations Championships. Even two years ago, two encouraging wins over Argentina and Tonga plus a close defeat by New Zealand was followed by a whitewash a few months later.

For all that, there is an air of self belief about this team that suggests they may be capable of shocking a few of their Spring opponents. There was enough Georgian resistance after the break to suggest that the visitors were actually a better team than they had looked for the first 40 minutes when the Scots were the ones with all the swagger, but they still came out on top.

"We played with quick ball in the first half which makes things a bit easier but they came out fighting in the second half, kept the ball a bit more," said Wilson. "That made it a lot more difficult; the second half was a a lot more brutal than the first. They put in a lot of big shots, they have some big men, physical players."

The other source of hope is the uncovering of more and more players who look at home at this level with the likes of Hamish Watson and Magnus Bradbury joining the battle for places in the back row, a role that was already intensely competitive.

Nobody illustrated that new breed of confidence more than Ali Price, the scrum half who came on for his first cap after 73 minutes and launched his international career by launching a spectacular try 80 yards upfield, eventually finished by Stuart Hogg.

You could have forgiven him if he had been nervous, after all he sat unused on the bench for both the previous two games this month, and as the clock ticked steadily on must have been starting to wonder if that debut was ever coming but it looked the exact opposite.

"This whole month has been a brilliant experience for me," he said. "I have just had to bide my time but I was over the moon to get on. I have just been told that if I got my chance to go out and express myself.

"I pride myself on the speed of my game and taking my opportunities. When there are 70-plus minutes on the clock and the opposition are tiring, give it a crack. It paid off.

"At the end of the day it is just another game of rugby even though it was my first international. In my head, the whole week I was looking to do what I do week-in, week-out for my club side."

At least it means an end to the fruitless trips to Scotland games for his family, conveniently based these days around the Troon area, making Kilmarnock the perfect venue for them to celebrate his promotion to capped ranks.

For Georgia, it was more a case of "what if". They played into Scotland's hands for the first 40 minutes and only showed their true potential in the second half. "There are several players in this Georgia team who have some experience," said Mamuka Gorgodze, the captain. "Scotland were were powerful but let me be frank, we should not have lost by that margin.The score does not reflect what we are capable of."