Scotland’s King bags a hat-trick
Scotland 33 Italy 20
WINGER Blair Kinghorn scored a hat-trick of tries as Scotland got their campaign off to a flier.
Scotland scored five tries to three for Italy for a deserved win, headlined by Kinghorn’s three scores but inspired by Finn Russell’s clever touches, both out of the hand and with the boot.
But Scotland will be concerned after letting a 31-3 lead slip in the final 10 minutes after Simon Berghan was handed a yellow card.
Italy took advantage of the one-man advantage to score through Guglielmo Palazzani, Edoardo Padovani and Angelo Esposito.
Stuart Hogg got Scotland’s third try and substitute Chris Harris went over for their fifth.
Italy opened the scoring from Tommaso Allan’s penalty but Scotland led 12-3 at half-time, going on to open up a 28-point lead before allowing Italy to come back late on.
Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw admitted: “We are happy with the middle part of the game.
“But, we have a couple of things to work on.
“I see that as a positive though.”