SCOTS’ RECORD WIN HAS CHERRY ON TOP

Scotland 52 Italy 10

BREAK: Van der Merwe scores Scots’ second try

SCOTLAND made it third time lucky at Murrayfield as they cruised to their first home win of this Six Nations with a recordbreaking thrashing of Italy.

Skipper Stuart

Hogg admitted he was nervous about standing in for the injured Finn Russell at fly-half but the fullback need not have worried as his side ran in eight tries.

Hooker Dave Cherry scored twice on his first start, while scrum-half Scott Steele also marked his full debut with a try.

There was a brace too for powerful winger Duhan van der Merwe, while Darcy Graham, Huw Jones and Sam Johnson contributed to the Scots’ biggest ever

Six Nations victory.

Following agonising back-toback defeats against Wales and Ireland, this was the soother Gregor Townsend’s team needed and will raise spirits ahead of

Friday’s delayed final match with France in Paris.

Italy had shipped an average of 46 points in their four previous games and the haemorrhaging continued as Townsend’s team became the quickest this year to run up a bonus point, taking just 28 minutes to dot down four tries.

Yet it was the visitors who started the brighter, scoring inside six minutes as Luca Bigi squeezed over to score.

But it would not last as Cherry (left) powered over within four minutes.

The Scots, who led 24-10 at the break, capitalised on spells in the sin-bin for Italy’s Federico Mori, Monty Ioane and Sebastian Negri as tries flooded in.

SCOTLAND: Tries: Cherry (2), Van der Merwe (2), D Graham, H Jones, Steele, Johnson. Cons: Hogg (6),

ITALY: Try: Bigi.

Con: Garbisi.

Pen:

Garbisi.