Scotland sidestepped a potential banana skin with a clinical 42-0 victory over Romania in their World Cup Pool C match at Murrayfield on Tuesday.
The Scots executed their game plan to near-perfection and largely kept the ball away from the Romanians' ferocious pack.
They exploited the gaps well and ran in six converted tries, including a hat-trick from flanker Allister Hogg, to ensure themselves a valuable bonus point.
PHOTO: AP
With two wins safely under their belts, Scotland are expected to rest some key players for the clash against New Zealand at Murrayfield on Sunday with the crucial match against Italy six days later in mind.
It is widely expected that the game against Italy in St Etienne will decide which team joins the mighty All Blacks in the quarter-final stage from the group.
"We are delighted to win but disappointed with some aspects," skipper Jason White said. "We committed too many unforced errors in the first half."
Coach Frank Hadden was delighted to keep the Romanians pointless and defended his error-hit team.
"We have only played four times this season, so it's hard to peak at this stage. I asked the guys to crank it up a notch. We approached the game in the right manner and got the right result," he said.
Romania team boss Robert Antonin said his players were still suffering the after-effects of the game against Italy six days ago.
"It's a heavy defeat. I think my players were tired from the Italy game. The beginning of the game was very bad for us. We were beaten in all the contests. We were beaten in the line-out," he said.
The Scots came into the game on the back of a 56-10 win over Portugal in their opener while Romania were considered unlucky to go down 18-24 to Italy.
Scotland made four changes to the team that beat Portugal, with winger Simon Webster being handed his first start at center in place of Marcus Di Rollo, while Romania named the same 15 that pushed Italy all the way.
The Scots made the best possible start before a 31,222 crowd at a bitterly cold Murrayfield.
Fly-half Dan Parks hoisted an up-and-under in the second minute which winger Chris Paterson collected, kicked ahead and chased.
It looked as if he was going to lose the race with Catalin Fercu but the winger slipped and Paterson gratefully touched down for the opening try which he converted for a 7-0 lead.
Scotland were dominating the match and turned their superiority into more points when Hogg touched down after a mighty push from a line-out. Paterson converted to make it 14-0.
The Scots were totally in command with Romania not threatening their line in the opening 30 minutes but some sloppy handling brought a couple of promising moves to a premature end.
The home side virtually put the result beyond doubt with a superb try in the 36th minute.
Full-back Rory Lamont, scorer of two tries against Portugal, was on the end of a swift back line move which stretched the one-paced Romanians.
Paterson added the conversion for a 21-0 halftime lead.
Six minutes into the second half, Hogg went over for his second try after a charge down by Simon Taylor and a surge from scrum-half Mike Blair and the Edinburgh player completed a hat-trick of scores in the 51st minute.
Paterson converted both tries.
A beautifully balanced run from Rory Lamont in the 71st minute saw him collect his second try.
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