SIX NATIONS Scrum on feel the noise TO BE ROCKING TODAY
Italian job takes off the heat ITOJE WANTS TWICKENHAM
Italy 0 Scotland 17 v
SCOTLAND earned their first Six Nations win to ease the pressure on head coach Gregor Townsend.
Captain Stuart Hogg’s stunning solo effort in Rome was the Scots’ first of the campaign – which was added to after the break by centre Chris Harris and then late on by fly-half Adam Hastings.
Italy, searching for a first Six Nations win in 25 matches since beating Scotland in 2015, failed to breach a resolute defence and are rooted at the bottom of the table.
It was the second time they had failed to score in three matches and Townsend said: “I looked back at the game just there and maybe we didn’t play as fluently partly because of the way Italy were playing.
“But also maybe because we knew how important a game this was and how important a result was for us to now kick on in the championship.
“I’d now like to think we go into our last two games with any pressure on our shoulders lifted.
“The performance wasn’t perfect by any means but the defence was almost perfect when you have a zero against you.
“The effort was huge and it was a tough game to play in.
“At times we looked dangerous, beginning of the second half looked more like what we could do, and we got the win.”
Hogg, who had suffered a nightmare start to his reign as skipper, became the fifth player to score 20 Test tries for Scotland.
Townsend added: “It was world class. He almost had another with a few similar line breaks in the second half.
“He’s shown really good energy and good leadership through a tough time.”
Nil.
Tries: Hogg, Harris, Hastings.
Con: Hastings