Scotland deliver blessed relief for Townsend as Italy purgatory continues in the Eternal City
This was a match where the result was the only thing that mattered, and for 80 strangely muted stop-start minutes that fact was painfully apparent. But while this encounter was open, errorstrewn and desperately lacking in any fluency, absolutely none of that mattered to a Scotland side desperate for a victory to break their three-match losing streak and silence the growing murmurs of dissatisfaction.
For Scotland, this three-try victory kick-started by skipper Stuart Hogg’s virtuoso score after 22 minutes, equalled their record winning margin in Rome and was arguably their most emphatic win in 11 visits to the Eternal City. More importantly, it eases the growing pressure on coach Gregor Townsend ahead of France’s visit to Murrayfield in two weeks’ time.
There was, however, no silver lining for ruinously profligate Italy, who coughed up the ball a remarkable 20 times during the course of this match.
The Azzurri now find themselves 25 defeats into a woeful five-year Six Nations losing streak that shows no signs of ending. With a 15th wooden spoon in the 21st campaign of the Six Nations era now a formality, the emphatic nature of this defeat raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions, the most pertinent of which is this: if Italy cannot even come close to beating an embattled Scotland side palpably lacking in confidence on their own patch, where exactly is their next Six Nations win going to come from?
Not that the Scotland coach will be wasting too much energy pondering Italy’s fate. In this dog-eat-dog competition, the Scots clearly came out on top. At least three tries went begging, and on another day Adam Hastings’ uncharacteristically wasteful three missed kicks in succession – the first of them a shanked conversion from almost in front of the posts – could have been very costly.
The gloriously springlike conditions in Rome were perfect for running rugby, but it became almost immediately apparent it was not going to be that sort of day despite Italy’s best intentions.
Scotland targeted them out wide, where the all-Edinburgh back row isolated the home side’s ball-carriers and gained penalty after penalty. With Steve Tandy now running their defensive organisation, a previously porous defence has conceded just two tries in three games. Their set-piece was also impressive and Scotland registered three tries after failing to score for two matches.
The margin of victory should have been more emphatic. After 10 minutes Scotland won a scrum penalty under the posts only for the usually metronomic Hastings to shank it wide from virtually point-blank range.
That was the beginning of a horrible period for the Scotland stand-off.
Moments later he kicked straight into touch when under no pressure and then his chip over the top was run back by Mattia Bellini, who went from one 22 to the other before eventually being hauled down.
The whole dynamic of the game changed with an outrageous solo effort from Hogg as the game entered the second quarter, his third try in as many matches against the Azzurri.
It started with a Carlo Canna clear
ance kick which went straight to Jamie Ritchie. The flanker moved the ball infield to Hastings, who picked out Hogg.
The full-back was just inside his own half so still had a ton of work to do, but he dummied and glided between flanker Sebastian Negri and centre Luca Morisi before burning around opposite number Jayden Hayward, using sheer pace to go over in the corner. Hastings missed the conversion. Scotland could have extended their lead on the half-hour when openside Hamish Watson, who carried magnificently and won the man-of-thematch award for his outstanding play at the breakdown, smashed into two Italian defenders out wide before offloading deftly to Johnson. The centre then put
Ali Price in under the posts for what looked like their second try, only to be called back for a forward pass from Watson.
The visitors’ unhappy habit of spurning points continued after the break when Watson made a break in Italy’s
22, offloaded to Bradbury, who in the process of being tackled popped the ball up to the onrushing Ritchie.
All the flanker had to do was catch the ball and flop over the line, but instead he spilt it under heavy pressure from Jake Polledri.
Scotland were camped in Italy’s 22 and when they won a penalty they kicked to the corner. Eighteen phases later, Chris Harris crashed through Polledri and Matteo Minozzi to extend Scotland’s lead to 10 points, although for the third time in succession Hastings’ kick failed to find its mark, his conversion bouncing back off the posts.
Nor were Scotland making the most of their chances. Kinghorn twice cut inside when there looked to be space on the outside, while Sean Maitland upbraided Hogg when the full-back went on his own when a simple pass to his wing would have given Maitland a clear run to the line.
Italy were guilty of overplaying and squandering the few chances they managed to create. When Hayward, Minozzi and Morisi combined for a sweeping break upfield, they set up a ruck right under Scotland’s posts only to be penalised for holding on. When replacement hooker Federico Zani was yellow-carded for dangerously upending Grant Gilchrist at a ruck with 10 minutes to go the game was up, with Hastings’ last-minute breakaway try rubbing salt into their wounds. For tragically hapless Italy, it was that kind of day.