History as Scots bag a first Italian victory for years
ITALY 10 SCOTLAND 17
Scotland claimed a historic first win in Italy since 1999 to go third in the Six Nations table.
They now travel to Belfast to play Ireland in their final game in this season’s Championship knowing that a win will see them qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup.
It was a gritty victory at Parma’s Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, built as much on defence as on attack, especially in the closing stages as Italy went in search of the converted try that would have given them a draw.
Scotland were reduced to 14 platers for the final minute after try-scorer Chloe Rollie was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle.
The full-back’s yellow card is expected to be upgraded to red, which could mean she’ll miss out on the match against Ireland, who were thumped 88-10 by England in yesterday’s earlier match.
Losing Rollie made for a tense ending to the game for head coach Bryan Easson, who admitted he thought his side should have wrapped the win up earlier.
“We were frustrated,” he said. “It was scrappy. It wasn’t the best performance. However, we executed when we needed to. “We would have lost this game a year ago, two years ago. You learn how to win, and how to build a lead, and we did that.
“That was probably the pleasing thing – we knew how to dig out a win, although it wasn’t a brilliant performance.”
Having said that, Easson admitted that it was a sign of how much his squad had improved that he was able to find fault in their victories.
“I think it is a mark of the team now that we are critiquing wins, because we want to get better,” he added. “We want to be fighting and winning against the best teams, and to do that we’ve got to be more consistent with our performances. We’ll always look at areas we can improve.
“Our minds are already on Ireland. It’s really positive to be in this position.
“We’re learning a lot with each other and working together as a group at putting in a more consistent performance next week.”
There was no scoring for the opening half-hour and more in a tense first half, but eventually Italy made the breakthrough when centre Alyssa D’inca timed her supporting run superbly to come into the line and burst clear from 40 metres out.
Beatrice Rigoni added the conversion to make it 7-0 but, crucially, Scotland levelled within minutes when Lana Skeldon touched down from a lineout maul and Helen Nelson converted. The visitors would not go behind again.
Scotland were under pressure in the early stages of the second half, but Italy were unable to turn that pressure into anything close to a scoring chance.
Then, with Leah Bartlett and Elliann Clarke on in the front row, the Scots scrum began to get on top again.
Back-row replacement Rachel Mclachlan and substitute scrum-half Mairi Mcdonald also injected a lot of energy and, just past the hour mark, the Scots took the lead for the first time. A kick by Lisa Thomson was fielded on the deck by Italian winger Aura Muzzo. But she was tackled by Rhona Lloyd, the ball went loose and Emma Orr picked up from a few metres out to run in an unconverted try.
Minutes later, their confidence visibly growing, Scotland scored again. They had to be patient with the attack, pressing through the middle before going wide but, in the end, Orr put Rollie in for her 20th try for her country.
Nelson missed the conversion, and a Rigoni penalty six minutes from time put the Italians within a full score of the draw, but Scotland held on.