Eight Try Scotland Destroy Italy

Scotland under-19 head coach Colin Robertson watched his side run in an impressive eight tries against a shell-shocked Italy side and described the display as one of the best he has seen in 20 years.Stand-off Ross Aitken scored two first half tries and contributed a further nine points with his boot to be justly awarded the Martin Currie man of the match award. The other tries were scored by lock Aaron Hall, prop Andrew Fraser, centre James Johnstone, replacement scrum half Kris Hamilton (pictured) and wingers Dougie Fife and Max Learmonth.As a result, Robertson hailed the collective team performance shown by his players after they had comfortably outclassed Italy. Robertson said: “It is very encouraging for Scottish Rugby to see these results and for our team to win by nearly 50 points is a proud moment for the players and coaching staff. “The first half display was as good as I’ve seen from a Scotland representative side. I thought we were absolutely first class; we attacked superbly, we off-loaded well and made line breaks regularly. “We had six or seven guys missing, who were involved with team last year, so it is a huge result.  “Our next match is away in France and that will be realty tough, but we will prepare with confidence and we will give it a crack. “We worked really hard on being physical and we also wanted our off-loading to be accurate. That worked well for us and we beat them comfortably. In actual fact, we could have scored more tries. “The result and performance bodes well for next year’s under-20 team. We are trying to prepare these players for that challenge and provide the selectors with a bigger pool of players available. “Replacement full-back Seumas Mackenzie scored three conversions late on in the game – underlining the phenomenal strength in depth in the under-19 squad.In reflection, one of the turning points in the match was when Italy lock Ivan Perrone was yellow-carded on the half-hour mark (of a 70-minute match) and Scotland expertly exploited the numerical advantage with ruthless efficiency.Scotland: Tom Brown (Seumas Mackenzie); Dougie Fife, Michael Tait, James Johnstone, Max Learmonth, Ross Aitken (Matthew Scott), Alex Black (Kris Hamilton); Anthony Kent (Nicky Little), Alun Walker (Mungo Strachan), Andrew Fraser, Aaron Hall (Matthew Reid), Grant Gilchrist, Michael Maltman, Calum Stidston-Nott, Jason Hill (Ross Sutherland).Tries: Aitken (2), Hall, Fraser, Johnstone, Hamilton, Fife, LearmonthConversions: Aitken (3), Mackenzie (3)Penalties: Aitken