Scotland hammer Italy in season-finale
SIX NATIONS MATCH REPORT: Scotland thrashed Italy 52-10 in their international at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The Scots ran in eight tries as they enjoyed a record rout of Italy, surpassing their 48-7 success in a 2015 World Cup warm-up.
Italy ended their involvement in this year’s edition with a 32nd successive Six Nations defeat – a run stretching back to a 2015 win over Scotland in Murrayfield.
But on Saturday the Scots had a four-try bonus point by half-time as they went 24-10 up at the break in a match where skipper Stuart Hogg started at flyhalf after Finn Russell was concussed in last week’s 27-24 loss to Ireland.
Dave Cherry and Duhan van der Merwe crossed early on before Darcy Graham and Huw Jones went over after Italy had been reduced to 14 men by Federico Mori’s yellow card.
Italy’s Sebastian Negri and Monty Ioane were also sin-binned in a second half where they didn’t manage a point.
Cherry and Van der Merwe crossed again with Scott Steele and Sam Johnson also touching down.
Scotland finishes the tournament away to France next week in a fixture postponed from last month because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the French camp.
The scorers
For Scotland
Tries: Cherry 2, Van der Merwe 2, D Graham, H Jones, Steele, Johnson
Cons: Hogg 6
For Italy
Try: Bigi
Con: Garbisi
Pen: Garbisi
Yellow cards: Federico Mori (Italy, 19), Sebastian Negri (Italy, 51), Monty Ioane (Italy, 60)
Teams
Scotland: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Stuart Hogg (captain), 9 Scott Steele, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Sam Skinner, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 David Cherry, 1 Rory Sutherland.
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Alex Craig, 20 Nick Haining, 21 Ali Price, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Chris Harris.
Italy: 15 Edoardo Padovani; 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Federico Mori, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney; 8 Michele Lamaro, 7 Johan Meyer, 6 Sebastian Negri; 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Luca Bigi (captain), 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Riccardo Favretto, 20 Maxime Mbanda, 21 Marcello Violi, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Marco Zanon
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England) & Craig Evans (Wales)
TMO: Alex Ruiz (France)
