Scotland beat Italy in a convincing manner at Murrayfield this past weekend to record their first win of this years the Nations championship. Simon Danielli scored an excellent try, helping the hosts to a 26-6 win.
“It feels great at Murrayfield, getting the win,” Danielli, scorer of Scotland’s first try, said. “I thought we really deserved it. The forwards were really good today; they gave the backs some space.”
Both sides went into the showdown having lost their opening two fixtures, but though Italy had beaten Scotland in the previous two tournaments, they made too many handling errors to seriously threaten a third consecutive win.
Chris Paterson kicked Scotland into an early 6-0 lead with two penalties and though Italy fought back, with a drop goal from Sergio Parisse, Phil Godman then kicked a penalty to make it 9-3 to Scotland.
The home side made a break through on 34 minutes when Danielli tore down the right flank for the first try of the afternoon. Godman converted and Italy’s Andrea Marcato then missed with a penalty from near the halfway line, making it 16-3 at halftime.
Italy squandered chances through poor handling and wayward discipline, repeatedly dropping the ball in scoring positions.
Luke McLean cut Scotland’s lead to 16-6 with a 55th minute penalty, but Scott Gray then dived over in the 60th minute and Paterson converted to make it 23-5.
Paterson then kicked a 68th minute penalty to complete the scoring, leaving Italy rock bottom of the table.
Time:
04:09
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