Scotland have made a habit of fast starts of late, and this Saturday afternoon in Edinburgh was no different. They spurned a penalty shot at goal for a greater reward in their opening siege on the Scottish 22, and were rewarded for the decision when co-captain Rory Darge just about managed to nudge the ball over the line for a try. His fellow skipper Finn Russell converted: 7-0.
In under ten minutes, Gregor Townsend’s side had their second try following some extremely effective back play. Fullback Blair Kinghorn drew the man before unleashing Duhan van der Merwe with a flat pass down the left wing. The power runner opted to pass back inside rather than go for the try himself, with an Italian defender knocking the ball backwards and high for centre Huw Jones to score. Russell converted: 14-0.
On the 20-minute mark, Italy finally registered their first points when fullback Tommaso Allan (coincidentally, a former Scotland U20 player) struck a penalty with Jonny Gray going offside. The Perpignan playmaker didn’t need to wait long to double his tally, a long effort sailing through the post after Russell was penalised at a ruck: 14-6.
If Scotland’s backs had their tails up, then their forwards wanted inon the action too. Hooker Dave Cherry peeled off the back of a maul in the visitors’ 22 and in the act of being hauled to the ground produced a crowd-pleasing offload to scrum-half Ben White for their third try.
The score read 19-6 after half an hour, but only the most one-eyed Azzurri fan would deny that the Scots looked worthy of more. Still, you take your chances when you get them in Test match rugby, and Allan on hand once again with a fine three-pointer from the tee to make it a ten-point game at Scottish Gas Murrayfield going into half time.
Despite all their possession in territory at the start of the second half, Allan was on hand – or boot – to remind them how precarious their lead was when he slotted another assured penalty to reduce the gap to a converted try.
That was the catalyst for another, greater blow from the Azzurri. Juan Ignacio Brex, so prominent throughout the first half, made a simple job of intercepting a Russell pass to Huw Jones to score from near enough halfway. With Allan’s conversion, Scotland had unthinkably let slip what had once been a convincing lead.
A stalemate ensued. The hosts needed something, anything to regain the upper hand, and on the hour introduced George Horne at nine, Tom Jordan and Gregor Brown in the second row for Stafford McDowall, White and Jonny Gray respectively.
But when it came to it, it was the established stars who broke the game. When Darcy Graham took the ball on his right wing, very little looked to be on for him. Cutting inside, he dodged three defenders and turned on the afterburners before passing to Jones, who scored to the wildly appreciative roars of the home crowd. A simply sensational piece of first-phase attack.
Russell added the two points with his conversion to give his team a small amount of breathing room: 26-19.
Scotland were now in a flow state, and when Huw Jones stepped back inside fly-half Paolo Garbisi near the Italian line, nobody was going to stop him reaching out for a hat-trick: 31-19. Yet still Italy attacked, and attacked, and at one point looked close to really making it a nervy final few minutes for the hosts, but a knock-on snuffed out any chances of that coming to pass.
The Azzurri were desperate to fulfil the promise of 2024’s unprecedented campaign in this competition, and to do the double against the Scots. That failed to materialise, but they had played their part in a thoroughly entertaining encounter in the Scottish capital, and we can look forward to more of the same in this year's Championship.
Next up for Scotland is the small matter of Ireland in Edinburgh, while Italy welcome Wales to Rome. On the back of today's showing, both sides can go into round two with confidence.
