Match Report: Scotland 31-19 Italy

Scotland were ferocious out of the blocks, scoring their first try of the championship with barely three minutes on the clock. From a quick tap penalty five metres from the line, they hustled and eventually Rory Drage squirmed his way over, Finn Russell converting to put gloss on an ideal opening act (7-0, 5 mins).

And it wasn’t long before they were cashing in again, thanks to some delightful hands. Russell timed his pop to Blair Kinghorn, who in turn fed Duhan van der Merwe. Haring away up the left touchline, the winger checked support lines and although his attempted pass to Huw Jones was somewhat scuppered by a stray Italian hand, Jones collected and scurried over for his 20^th international try – the eighth Scottish man to do so. Russell converted from slap bang in front (14-0, 8 minutes).

Darge was outstanding. Limpet-like, he fixed himself over an Italian body time and again, winning quickfire possession and penalties to stymie opposition designs of getting back into the game.

Jones, and the Scottish Gas Murrayfield faithful, thought he was in again on the 20-minute mark, but the elation was stopped in its tracks for a traitorous earlier Jonny Gray offside, with Tommaso Allan landing a long-range goal (14-3, 20 mins).

Allan repeated the trick two minutes later after Russell had gone in off his feet in a bid to help the tackled Darcy Graham (14-6, 22 mins).

Russell then almost went over himself for a wonderful score after a glorious Kinghorn and van der Merwe interchange, before some seriously slick hands from the likes of Matt Fagerson and Grant Gilchrist, but the ball was scrambled out of his grasp at the last.

When Sebastian Negri went off his feet cynically, Scotland opted to try to engineer a line-out opportunity and although they held firm at first, scrum-half Ben White was the close-range recipient of an outrageous Dave Cherry offload to nip over, as the hosts grabbed a third (19-6, 28 mins).

Ange Capuozzo couldn’t hold a midfield pass and Russell launched his left boot through the ball, on the volley, to cause chaos for a beleaguered Paulo Garbisi, who could no doubt feel Stafford McDowall’s breath as he galloped after, the crowd jubilant when the Italian was taken over his own line for a home scrum.

Allan landed a third long-range penalty after the Scottish front row stood a scrum up to lessen the gap to 10 points on the cusp of half-time, Garbisi kicking it dead to signal the interval.

Half-time: Scotland 19-9 Italy

Scotland needed to restart proceedings with a desire to put the game to bed and certainly shaped that way in the opening exchanges, with an unfortunate Graham knock-on ending a promising, multi-phase starter for ten.

But it was Italy who stole a second-half march with yet another penalty from distance after Scotland didn’t release in the tackle (19-12, 43 mins).

And the Azzurri tied the game in stunning fashion shortly after when Juan Ignacio Brex intercepted a Russell pass on halfway, racing home between the sticks to give Allan his easiest kick of the day (19-19, 46 mins).

Scotland chose to kick to touch instead of opting for an easy three shortly after and Italy duly overturned the ball on their own line to clear with aplomb.

Scotland summoned a raft of changes in a bid to spark back into life but it was two of the old guard who saw to it.

A breathtaking Darcy Graham break, twisting and turning his way through a bamboozled Italian defence, ended with the winger having the composure to float a perfect ball to Jones, who lapped up the opportunity for a second of the afternoon. Russell converted his third to follow up (26-19, 60 mins).

It might be a task to keep up with Jones, given he had his third of the afternoon soon after. Tom Jordan, on a centre, fed Kinghorn who looped a ball to the would-be hat-trick hero. With plenty still to do, Jones stepped two from a standing start and stretched out for his match-ball try (31-19, 66 mins).

Simone Gesi knocked on at the last when under pressure from Jordan and Darge to further dispel hopes of an away victory and although they engineered two or three more penalties, Italy couldn’t quite get over the losing bonus point threshold, allowing Scotland to win back the Cuttitta Cup.

Full-time: Scotland 31-19 Italy

Scotland: Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby), Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall (both Glasgow Warriors), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby); Finn Russell (Bath Rugby), Ben White (Toulon); Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry (both Edinburgh Rugby), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Jonny Gray (Bordeaux-Bègles), Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie (both Edinburgh Rugby), Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson (both Glasgow Warriors).

Replacements: Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Cherry, 50 mins), Rory Sutherland (Glasgow Warriors) (for Schoeman, 50mins), Will Hurd (Leicester Tigers) (for Z. Fagerson, 68 mins), Gregor Brown (Glasgow Warriors) (for Gray, 57 mins), Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) (for Ritchie, 50 mins), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) (for White, 57 mins), Tom Jordan (Glasgow Warriors) (for McDowall, 57 mins), Kyle Rowe (Glasgow Warriors) (for Graham, 72 mins).

Italy: Tommaso Allan, Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Monty Ioane; Paulo Garbisi, Martin Page-Relo; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Dino Lamb, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (captain), Lorenzo Cannone.

Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi, Luca Rizzoli, Marco Riccioni, Nicolo Cannone, Manuel Zuliani, Ross Vintcent, Alessandro Garbisi, Simone Gesi.

Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

Assistant referees: Luke Pearce (RFU) and Damian Schneider (UAR)

Television Match Official: Marius Jonker (SARU)

Fair Play Review Officer: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)

Guinness Player of the Match: Huw Jones (Scotland)

Attendance: 67,144