Match Report: Scotland 31-19 Italy

Scotland had been ferocious out of the blocks, scoring their first attempt of the championship with barely three minutes on the clock. From a fast faucet penalty 5 metres from the road, they hustled and finally Rory Drage squirmed his method over, Finn Russell changing to place gloss on a really perfect opening act (7-0, 5 minutes).

And it wasn’t lengthy earlier than they had been cashing in once more, because of some pleasant fingers. Russell timed his pop to Blair Kinghorn, who in flip fed Duhan van der Merwe. Haring away up the left touchline, the winger checked help traces and though his tried move to Huw Jones was considerably scuppered by a stray Italian hand, Jones collected and scurried over for his 20^th worldwide attempt – the eighth Scottish man to take action. Russell transformed from slap bang in entrance (14-0, 8 minutes).

Darge was excellent. Limpet-like, he mounted himself over an Italian physique again and again, profitable quickfire possession and penalties to stymie opposition designs of getting again into the sport.

Jones, and the Scottish Gasoline Murrayfield trustworthy, thought he was in once more on the 20-minute mark, however the elation was stopped in its tracks for a traitorous earlier Jonny Grey offside, with Tommaso Allan touchdown a long-range purpose (14-3, 20 minutes).

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

Russell then nearly went over himself for an exquisite rating after a wonderful Kinghorn and van der Merwe interchange, earlier than some severely slick fingers from the likes of Matt Fagerson and Grant Gilchrist, however the ball was scrambled out of his grasp on the final.

When Sebastian Negri went off his toes cynically, Scotland opted to attempt to engineer a line-out alternative and though they held agency at first, scrum-half Ben White was the close-range recipient of an outrageous Dave Cherry offload to nip over, because the hosts grabbed a 3rd (19-6, 28 minutes).

Ange Capuozzo couldn’t maintain a midfield move and Russell launched his left boot by the ball, on the volley, to trigger chaos for a beleaguered Paulo Garbisi, who might little doubt really feel Stafford McDowall’s breath as he galloped after, the gang jubilant when the Italian was taken over his personal line for a house scrum.

Allan landed a 3rd long-range penalty after the Scottish entrance row stood a scrum as much as reduce the hole to 10 factors on the cusp of half-time, Garbisi kicking it lifeless to sign the interval.

Half-time: Scotland 19-9 Italy

Scotland wanted to restart proceedings with a want to place the sport to mattress and positively formed that method within the opening exchanges, with an unlucky Graham knock-on ending a promising, multi-phase starter for ten.

Nevertheless it was Italy who stole a second-half march with yet one more penalty from distance after Scotland didn’t launch within the sort out (19-12, 43 minutes).

And the Azzurri tied the sport in beautiful style shortly after when Juan Ignacio Brex intercepted a Russell move on midway, racing residence between the sticks to offer Allan his best kick of the day (19-19, 46 minutes).

Scotland selected to kick to the touch as a substitute of choosing a straightforward three shortly after and Italy duly overturned the ball on their very own line to clear with aplomb.

Scotland summoned a raft of adjustments in a bid to spark again into life but it surely was two of the outdated guard who noticed to it.

A wide ranging Darcy Graham break, twisting and turning his method by a bamboozled Italian defence, ended with the winger having the composure to drift an ideal ball to Jones, who lapped up the chance for a second of the afternoon. Russell transformed his third to observe up (26-19, 60 minutes).

It may be a activity to maintain up with Jones, given he had his third of the afternoon quickly after. Tom Jordan, on a centre, fed Kinghorn who looped a ball to the would-be hat-trick hero. With loads nonetheless to do, Jones stepped two from a standing begin and stretched out for his match-ball attempt (31-19, 66 minutes).

Simone Gesi knocked on on the final when underneath strain from Jordan and Darge to additional dispel hopes of an away victory and though they engineered two or three extra penalties, Italy couldn’t fairly recover from the shedding bonus level threshold, permitting Scotland to win again the Cuttitta Cup.

Full-time: Scotland 31-19 Italy

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

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

Italy: Tommaso Allan, Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Monty Ioane; Paulo Garbisi, Martin Web 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)

Tv Match Official: Marius Jonker (SARU)

Truthful Play Assessment Officer: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)

Guinness Participant of the Match: Huw Jones (Scotland)

Attendance: 67,144