Scotland 52-10 Italy: Worst-ever finish for under-fire Italians

SCOTLAND maintained their hopes of a top-half finish in the Six Nations with a record eight-try dismantling of a hapless Italy to condemn the Azzurri to their worst-ever Championship campaign.

Gregor Townsend's side had a bonus point wrapped up after just 28 minutes and made hay with four more tries after the interval to surpass the 41-point margin of victory they managed in a 2015 World Cup warm-up match against the Italians.

The Scots will head to Paris for their rescheduled fixture against France on Friday with renewed confidence as they target a first win in the French capital since 1999.

But another heavy defeat means Italy's longterm future in the Championship will remain the subject of intense debate.

After conceding 50 points to France, 41 to England and 48 to both Ireland and Wales, the 52 conceded at Murrayfield made it a record 239 points in their five games, surpassing their previous worst of 228 in 2000.

The 34 tries conceded was also another record, surpassing 29 in 2016.

The visitors started brightly and opened the scoring with a try from hooker Luca Bigi from a lineout maul, with Paolo Garbisi landing a magnificent conversion.

But woeful indiscipline saw them play almost half an hour of this game with 14 men, and a minute or so with 13, after three players were sent to the sin-bin.

No.8 Michele Lamaro was also fortunate not to join Federico Mori, Sebastian Negri and Monty Ioane in seeing at least yellow after charging into a ruck, but referee Pascal Gauzere settled for awarding just a penalty.

Scotland were clinical in taking advantage, although they hardly needed to hit top gear against such limited opponents.

Hamish Watson was deservedly named player of the match after another barnstorming display which saw the flanker make 120 metres from 21 carries.

Hooker Dave Cherry seized his opportunity on his first Test start with two tries from lineout mauls and brought a welcome assurance to the lineout operation after the horrors endured against Ireland.

Cherry grabbed the first after ten minutes and Scotland swiftly had a second, sparked by a wonderful break from deep by recalled centre Huw Jones. Sam Johnson and Watson combined to put Duhan van der Merwe over for the first of his brace.

Garbisi's penalty made it 12-10 before Italy were reduced to 14 for the first time after a shoulder charge from centre Mori on Johnson.

Scotland scored 12 points in his absence. First Sean Maitland ghosted through a yawning gap and found Jones, whose offload off the floor sent Darcy Graham over.

Maitland, playing at fullback, was also involved in the fourth try as Jones cantered on to Stuart Hogg's inside pass to bring up the bonus point.

The Scots' distribution was not as slick as they might have liked as the game became scrappy and disjointed before the interval.

But the scores continued to come at regular intervals on the resumption. Cherry bagged his second in almost identical fashion to his first after a well-executed lineout move, before Scotland exacted further punishment when Negri was binned for a deliberate slap-down.

Scott Steele marked a solid first Test start by forcing his way over from close range before Van der Merwe lost control of the ball over the line after an exquisite through-the-legs spin pass from Hogg, starting his first Test at fly-half in the absence of Finn Russell.

When Monty Ioane lifted the Scotland captain in the tackle, he was fortunate Hogg landed on his back and not his head, otherwise the Italy wing would have seen red rather than yellow.

Johnson forced his way over from close range for the seventh try before Van der Merwe collected his second –a sixth in nine Tests for the giant winger – after a superb Ali Price break from his own 22.

Thumping Italy will not ease the pain of those narrow home defeats by Wales and Ireland, but at least gives the Scots an outside shot at matching or beating their previous best Six Nations finish of third.