MUCH more like Scotland’s first-choice team, and much more like it generally. Vern Cotter’s side swatted aside the Italians expending significantly less sweat than was required on a balmy night in Turin last week, scoring six tries and giving their head coach a little more to think about as he prepares to finalise his World Cup squad.
If there was any doubt about Sean Lamont’s place in the party, the evergreen wing surely banished it with a typically relentless performance gilded by two tries.
John Barclay, rather more definitely in last-chance saloon, grasped the opportunity to show why we shouldn’t be calling time on his World Cup hopes just yet. The Scarlets back-row was his usual redoubtable self at the breakdown and responded to Cotter’s call to offer more in attack, scoring his first Test try since February 2010 and popping up repeatedly as a threat in and around the driven maul that gave Scotland plenty joy.
Tim Visser had a topsy-turvy afternoon, at fault for Italy’s try, but contributing two of his own after the interval. The second, a length of the field intercept from Luke McLean, ensured Scotland ended the game with their biggest ever margin of victory over the Azzurri and their largest points tally in a single game since 2007.
Mark Bennett, on his return from a shoulder injury, rounded things off in the last minute, pocketing a loose ball on his own 22 and haring away down the left for a try that will have pleased Scotland’s conditioning staff as much as Cotter.
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“It was a mixed bag once again, three tries come from intercepts so we’ll put a dose of reality on that, but we improved in certain sectors we’d looked at,” said the head coach.
The all-Edinburgh front row will be key figures next month, and picked up where they left off in the second half in Turin by forcing three successive scrum penalties in the first seven minutes. Martin Castrogiovanni, winning a record-equalling 112th Italian cap, was done for dropping his bind, while loose-head Matias Aguero also found himself on the wrong side of the referee.
This immediate set-piece dominance gave Scotland the platform to make inroads, and they soon converted the pressure into points. After slow ruck ball threatened to stymie things in midfield, Finn Russell underlined his awareness of the space around and ahead of him, cooking his cross-kick just enough that Lamont could gather and dot down before the back-tracking Gugliemo Palazzani could intervene.
Russell was at the heart of everything that was good about Scotland, always looking to move the ball out of contact and bring runners into the game. Stuart Hogg, never one to pass up that sort of invitation, gave the Italian defence a torrid time with his steps and surges, this after sending BT Murrayfield’s collective blood pressure sky-high when he appeared to pull up in the warm-up. “He had a twinge in his ankle,” explained Cotter. “But he got through the game and seemed fine.”
The crowd had further cause for sudden alarm on the half-hour, when Italy’s first real foray into the Scotland 22 brought them seven points. The Scots struggled to deal with the driving maul, referee Romain Poite already playing advantage before Tommaso Allan (Tommy to his mates round these parts) lifted a speculative kick into the in-goal area. Visser tried to tame the ball, but succeeded only in knocking it off Laidlaw’s head. Michele Campagnaro pocketed the easiest five points of his career.
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It was important Scotland reasserted themselves promptly, and the fact they did it beating the Italians at their own game will have made it doubly satisfying for Cotter. After Francesco Minto was sin-binned for getting on the wrong side of one maul, Scotland went to the corner and set up another. Once it had got up a head of steam, Barclay span off and got the ball down, despite the close attention of two defenders.
With defenders committed, Barclay and David Denton both made yards, before Laidlaw fed Russell for a delicious long pass to the legions of unchecked support out left. Visser was the beneficiary, ambling across at will.
Laidlaw knocked over a penalty to put Scotland 31-7 to the good, and they coasted home thereafter.
Star man: Alasdair Dickinson (Scotland)
Scotland: Hogg (Jackson 69min); Lamont, Bennett, Horne (Scott 52min), Visser; Russell, Laidlaw (Capt) (Pyrgos 66min); Dickinson (Reid 63min), Ford (McInally 57min), Nel (Welsh 63min), Gilchrist (Harley 61min), J Gray, Wilson, Barclay (Cowan 61min), Denton
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Italy: McLean; Esposito (Masi 51min), Campagnaro, Morisi, Sarto; Allan (Canna 74min), Palazzani (Violi 74min); Aguero (Rizzo 34min), Ghiraldini (Capt) (Manici 66min), Castrogiovanni (Chistolini 56min), Fuser (Geldenhuys 56min), Furno, Zanni, Minto (Bergamasco 66min), Vunisa