Mission accomplished in Rome, but this was not a particularly convincing performance by the visitors. They scored five well-constructed tries but conceded three against a team who had crossed the whitewash once in their three previous Six Nations matches.
Scotland now head to Dublin for their final outing of the campaign with a valuable win, but they will be in no doubt of the need to be an awful lot better next Saturday if they are going to keep it respectable. There was little evidence here to suggest they can play at or near the intensity level that will be required if they are to topple Ireland.
Eight tries meant this spectacle was not completely devoid of entertainment, but the rugby between those isolated highlights was not of a standard to enliven the subdued crowd in a stadium half-empty due to Covid restrictions.
After a tough couple of weeks against Wales and France, which had clearly shaken Scotland’s confidence, they struggled to find any rhythm during the opening quarter of an hour, committing several unforced errors including the concession of three soft penalties, with a lazy offside straight from a lineout on four minutes allowing the Azzurri stand-off, Paolo Garbisi, to nudge his side into a three-point lead.
Against higher calibre opposition this game could have been out of sight before Scotland had fired a shot.
It finally clicked for the visitors on 18 minutes when their captain, Stuart Hogg, countered from deep. Darcy Graham provided the link to send George Turner rampaging up the right touchline before Ali Price carried the move on. When the scrum-half was brought down 15 yards from glory Graham reappeared to scoop up possession and feed Finn Russell, who fired one of his trademark miss-passes to the left for Sam Johnson to score in the corner.
Italy came back hard, aided by a loose pass from Russell, which Toa Halafihi latched on to and carried deep into Scotland’s 22. But the visitors rode their luck and delivered a length-of-the-park sucker-punch, which came from a Price interception on his own line and featured a smart chip ahead from Kyle Steyn to send Chris Harris on an unchallenged canter between the sticks.
A bitter pill to swallow, but Italy dug deep again to keep themselves in the contest and after a long-range penalty attempt from Garbisi fell short the home side’s perseverance was rewarded from a set move off scrum ball in the middle of the park. Pierre Bruno passed back inside just before being bundled into touch by Hogg to provide Callum Braley with the simplest of finishes.
Scotland had the last word of the half with a scrum move of their own, Russell and Hogg combining to tie up Italy’s midfield defence, before Harris came back against the grain to burst through the line and score his second try.
Two out of three conversions from Russell meant the Scots were nine points ahead at the break, but as they emerged for the second half they still did not look settled, squandering possession twice in five minutes before it finally clicked again when Graham collected an inside pass from Russell and scrambled home on 48 minutes to bring up the bonus-point.
At last, it looked like Scotland might be about to rediscover some of the swagger not seen since Graham’s try in the first half of their match against Wales.
Price, the man of the match, took just enough time to weigh up his options after gathering possession in the backfield for a gap to open up which he happily darted through. While his pass to Hogg almost certainly floated forward, the referee, Luke Pearce, was content to attribute that to momentum and promptly raised his arm to award Scotland their fifth try.
Scotland should really have kicked on from here but that was the last shot they fired. Italy were down, but they were not prepared to drop out without a fight and they struck back through replacement Ange Capuozzo. Garbisi’s touchline conversion made it 33-17 with just over 10 minutes left to play.
The home team dominated the remainder of the match and Scotland had to dig deep to keep their line intact, which they managed to do until the third minute of stoppage time when Capuozzo wriggled over for his second try.
It was not enough to salvage a bonus point but will provide the Azzurri with some sort of morale boost as they continue to scrap to stay relevant in this championship.
