This is a test passed. Not the sternest test, it is true, certainly if ambitions of a first title of the Six Nations era are to be entertained seriously, but how easy to imagine previous iterations of 21st-century Scotland failing something similar.
Five beautifully constructed tries against one interception try tells its own story. Scotland played by far the better rugby, but they know more than anyone that playing the better rugby does not on its own a victory make. That this was as close as it was owed to Italian obstinacy – they are a team that will not go away – and the boot of Tommaso Allan, followed by the absolutely classic wobble in the third quarter of a fancied team of still-not-unshakeable composure. Ten quickfire points at the start of the second half brought the Azzurri level at 19-19, having played the square root of no rugby. Having not been allowed to.
“That was a real test,” said Gregor Townsend. “Italy will be a serious opposition for every team in the championship. To be leading for most of the game and then go to 19-all and come through it – that’s going to prepare us really well for the tests to come.”
Huw Jones will steal the headlines, Scotland’s centre scoring a hat-trick of tries, the second and third of them in the final quarter, brilliantly executed, through which Scotland passed that test. But it was Scotland’s wings, the little and large of international rugby, who in their various ways paved the way for Jones’s finishes.
If there were an obvious difference between the two sides beforehand, it lay out wide, where the home team’s firepower seemed noticeably more potent. Nowhere was the disparity more pronounced than in the form of Duhan van der Merwe. Brilliant though his opposite man, Ange Capuozzo, is, he gives away more than a few pounds to Scotland’s bullocking left wing.
Sure enough, twice in the first 10 minutes Van der Merwe was released on a raid down the touchline, and twice tries resulted. Blair Kinghorn supplied the pass each time. From the first, Van der Merwe set up position deep in Italy’s 22. A penalty was tapped by Dave Cherry; Kinghorn went close, before Rory Darge charged into and through a couple of Italians for the first try.
The second was sweeter still, Finn Russell looping round Jamie Ritchie to set up the Van der Merwe show again. This time, his inside ball ricocheted off Ignacio Brex and into the hands of Jones, who ran to the posts for his first.
A confident start, then, but Italy can play rope-a-dope, their tacklers hard and willing. A pair of penalties at the start of the second quarter by Allan put them on the board, only for Scotland to strike again on the half-hour, Cherry’s brilliant off-load on the blindside of an advancing maul putting over Ben White in the corner.
Allan’s third penalty, after Italy’s scrum prevailed just inside Scotland’s half, sent Italy into the sheds only 10 points behind. Not a bad return, given the paucity of their share of possession. But Italy had more on their mind. Giacomo Nicotera levelled Matt Fagerson, and Tommaso Menoncello won the penalty from which Allan landed his fourth shot at goal, before echoes of Scotland’s erratic history returned to haunt them.
Russell is supposed to represent new, grown-up Scotland, but his mercurial past momentarily resurfaced when he threw a pass, after more neat approach play, into the wall of Italians that had cut him off from his support out wide. Brex could not believe his luck as he collected it to run in from nearly 60 yards – 19-19.
Test set. Scotland meandered for a good quarter of an hour, all fingers and thumbs as Italy sensed an upset. But up stepped Darcy Graham on the other wing. Simple hands from a scrum just outside Scotland’s 22 found him with seemingly no options, but he stepped inside the Italian cover and somehow found his way to the wide open spaces. Jones appeared on his shoulder to collect the scoring pass.
Russell converted and five minutes later looped round Tom Jordan. This time his delayed pass to Graham was exquisite. The wing punched into Italy’s defence and the ball came back, swung to the right, where Jones stepped past one and reached out of the excellent Danilo Fischetti’s tackle to score one-handed.
Italy had barely entered Scottish territory in the accumulation of their 19 points, but they righted that in the last 10 minutes, pounding at Scotland’s line. The latest whizz kid, Simone Gesi, came closest to scoring but was scythed down metres short. That Scotland’s defence held fast then brought Townsend almost as much joy as the five tries before.
So, yes, Scotland can play like few others. And, yes, they do seem to have something more in the composure department than previously. Bigger tests to come, though, starting next weekend, here, against Ireland.
