The Wales captain played a significant role in creating many of those tries with his early cross-kick putting Oli Andrew over at the corner which got the ball rolling. This was an impressive performance from Byron Hayward’s side, and Ospreys centre Hawkins insists there’s more to come.
“The boys put in a decent performance,” said Hawkins. “It was far from perfect but it shows what we are capable of, and we can get even better.
“We were way off 100 percent but we still managed to put 45 points on the board. We went in at half-time with only 40 percent possession so we were playing off scraps a little bit which wasn’t ideal.
“It just shows the quality and how dangerous we are that we don’t need to have much ball but we can still score 45 points. The first game can always be a tricky one especially with no warm-ups coming into it.
“So getting off to a good stand settles the nerves and breaths confidence into the group going into the next couple of games.” Next up for Wales is a clash with Georgia on Thursday, and Hawkins has warned his side they will have to be even better to beat the Eastern Europeans.
“We know Georgia are going to bring a different type of challenge to Scotland so we will have to improve,” he said.
“They are big, physical men who are used to the heat so we have to be at our best. But confidence is building, the ball is rolling, and we are looking forward to it.”
One player who enjoyed himself in the searing heat of Treviso was flying wing Harri Houston who got on the scoresheet, and terrorised the Scotland defence throughout.
“The pressure was on in the first half but we showed some good character to come back into the game, and score some points,” he said.
“It was a good open game with nice dry weather which gave the backs some good opportunities. We started slow during the first five minutes, but then we started to come into it.
“Scotland came out strongly in the second-half so we knew we had to put a few more points on the board, and be clinical, and we were.”
