England 41 Georgia 10: A second-half blitz was enough to give England a comfortable-looking 41-10 win over Georgia. While the scoreline - and bonus point - will have been reason enough for England to be happy, they will have left the Otago Stadium knowing they have much harder challenges ahead.
The match was certainly an improvement on the ugly 13-9 opening win over Argentina - while Simon Shaw, Tom Palmer, James Haskell, Delon Armitage and Shontayne Hape all impressed. However, Martin Johnson's men were almost made to pay for an ill-disciplined first-half display and had Georgia taken their chances early on the pressure would have really been on.
England conceded 11 penalties in the opening 40 minutes alone, with hooker Dylan Hartley yellow carded. But as it was, Hape (2), Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton (2) crossed for tries, while Toby Flood added 11 points.
Georgia took advantage of Hartley's 10-minute stint on the sidelines to score a try through Dimitri Basilaia while Merab Kvirikashvili slotted over five points.
Kvirikashvili was guilty of missing his first three shots at goal and another two after the break - while they tired in the second half as the exertions of playing two games in four days had an impact.
England must have thought they were in for an easy night's work as they opened the scoring after just three minutes. Shaw made the initial hard yards from Basilaia's mistake, with Hape scooting through a gap at the fringes of the breakdown to run through unopposed. Flood converted.
Georgia's response was almost immediate, though, as England coughed up possession from a scrum in their own 22 but Ashton did just enough to deny Irakli Machkhaneli in the corner.
Kvirikashvili then missed two shots at goal while Alexander Todua was brought down by Ben Youngs as the eastern Europeans took the game to their more illustrious hosts.
England were doing themselves no favours as they conceded a series of needless penalties at the breakdown.
However having endured an uncomfortable 15-minute spell, England began to settle and put the phases together.
And unlike Georgia, they took their chance when it came along with Hape benefiting after a series of drives forward. Flood converted to put England 14-0 up after 22 minutes.
Kvirikashvili was off target with his third successive kick before the Georgia fly-half finally found his range after 27 minutes.
Flood, though, responded with a penalty of his own to restore England's 14-point lead before Georgia finished the half with a flourish and England again shot themselves in the foot as Hartley was sin-binned for hands in a ruck.
And Georgia made them pay as Basilaia broke off the back of the scrum and powered over - although England did not help themselves by the decision to go for a seven-man scrum by taking Tom Wood off for hooking replacement Steve Thompson. Kvirikashvili converted.
England made a bright start to the second half - despite being a man down - with Armitage denied a try by desperate cover defence.
There was no denying the makeshift winger five minutes later, though, as quick hands released him again to dive over.
Kvirikashvili failed to cut the deficit with his fourth and fifth misses of the match - and it was England who moved further out in front, with Tuilagi picking the perfect line to power through. Flood converted.
And as Georgia tired Ashton was next to score, with Tom Wood break through initially before shipping the ball on to his Northampton colleague. Flood was on target with the extras.
Ben Foden then had his late try chalked off for a forward pass - he turned provider with the last play as he popped the ball up for Ashton to dive over in the corner.
