Relief in Rome

Townsend left frustrated by late lapses despite bonus point victory

SCOTLAND got back to winning ways in the Six Nations yesterday with a 33-22 victory over Italy in Rome, but head coach Gregor Townsend was frustrated nonetheless by lapses which allowed the home side to score a couple of late tries.

“I’m delighted for the players to get a win away from home at the end of a really productive week,” Townsend said. “I’m very happy with the first 50 minutes, but going into the final quarter with a good lead on the scoreboard we were expecting to kick on. So credit to Italy for the way they played during that period. But we’ll look at ourselves and we’re disappointed that we didn’t build on that really good first 50 -60 minutes.”

Scotland won the try count 5-3 thanks to touchdowns from Sam Johnson, Chris Harris who got two, Darcy Graham and captain Stuart Hogg. Finn Russell converted four of the five, while his half-back partner Ali Price was named man of the match on his 50th appearance.

Italy coach Kieran Crowley, meanwhile, found aspects of his team’s performance to be proud of despite the fact that they have now lost their last 36 matches in the Championship. “We missed too many one-on-one tackles today,” he said. “I think there were two tries from counter-attacks and two from turnovers – it just wasn’t good enough. Our defence let us down, particularly in the first half. But I’m very pleased with the way we bounced back late in the game.”

Scotland need to beat Ireland in Dublin in Saturday’s final round of games if they are to equal last season’s return of three wins from five. The Irish beat England 32-15 in yesterday’s late game, which saw English lock Joe Ewels sent off in the second minute.