Scotland 20 Italy 34

Diego Dominguez kicked Italy to a historic 34-20 victory over Scotland in the opening match of the new Six Nations Championship.

Italy, coming off three numbing defeats at the World Cup, banished a year of misery to beat the winners of the final Five Nations tournament with Dominguez scoring all but five of his country's points and achieving something that all the other countries had failed to do on their respective debuts in the competition -- beat Scotland.

Italy, watched by Princess Anne at the Flaminio Stadium in Rome, were 12-10 up at the break and ran out deserved winners for a solid, error-free performance that kept the Scots in check.

Dominguez' success contrasted sharply with the miserable afternoon spent by Scottish kicker Kenny Logan, for whom little or nothing went right in front of a crowd of 20,000.

Italy defended well in a tough, balanced match which gave neither side much room to build up wide overlapping moves or solo runs into space.

Dominguez' early drop-kick fell short but Scotland should have taken a sixth minute lead when Logan skewed a 25-metre penalty kick well wide of the left-hand post.

He steered another wide from 35 metres just minutes later as Scotland kept up the pressure but Italy held their ground and kept possession.

Dominguez tried his luck again with a penalty from the 40-metre line but again came up just short, while Scotland lost injured skipper John Leslie with a suspected thigh problem after 14 minutes -- replaced by James McLaren.

Scottish stand-off Gregor Townsend finally broke the deadlock with an 18th minute drop goal from 25 metres, but Dominguez levelled five minutes later -- swinging in a superb penalty from the left, some 30 metres out.

Logan's erratic kicking continued when he sent in a penalty which cracked the left-hand post, flew down and hit the crossbar before bouncing out and being cleared by the Italian defence.

Dominguez showed him how it was done in the 32nd minute with a well-taken penalty from the right as Italy took a 6-3 lead.  But it all changed within the space of four minutes.

Glenn Metcalfe made the first penetrating run of the match, picking up possession 30 metres out and running for the line.

The New Zealand-born Scottish full-back was blocked by a desperate tackle but the loose ball was kicked forward between the posts and hooker Gordon Bulloch sprinted after it for an easy try.

Logan converted for 10-6 and Scotland looked ready to make the decisive break.

But Dominguez came to Italy's rescue with two consecutive penalties -- the second with the last kick of the half -- to put the Squadra Azzurra 12-10 up at the break.

The Argentinian-born stand-off, who toured for the Pumas in the late 1980s, followed up with a ballistic drop goal from 35 metres out in the very first minute of the second half -- and five minutes later hit another from a similar distance as Italy took an 18-10 lead.

Logan had a chance to narrow the gap just a couple of minutes later but the left winger sent his penalty from the 22-metre line just wide of the right-hand post.

Dominguez punished him for the miss almost immediately, booting the Italians into a 21-10 lead with a majestic penalty from the 40-metre line which sailed over the bar in the 52nd minute.

Townsend took over the kicking in the 57th minute for Scotland, calmly knocking home a penalty for 21-13, as the visitors put up a fight.

But Dominguez was in unstoppable form, saving his best of the afternoon when he drove home an angled penalty from 27 metres out -- but just four metres inside the right-hand touchline for 24-13.

He followed up with another 40-metre drop in the 68th minute to put Italy on their way -- 27-13 up against the Five Nations champions, whose handling went to pieces in the closing 15 minutes.

Dominguez nearly rounded off his magical afternoon with a try, but the Scottish defence managed to stop the 33-year-old -- something they failed to do when replacement Giampiero De Carli went over from close range.

Dominguez obliged with a tricky conversion from the right for 34-13.

Scotland stormed straight back up the field to score a try through flanker Martin Leslie in stoppage time, converted by Townsend for 34-20.  But it was too little and too late to save Scotland.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Bryan Redpath, 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Shaun Longstaff, 12 John Leslie (c), 13 Jamie Mayer, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  Dave Hilton, James McLaren, Stuart Reid, Doddie Weir
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Andy Nicol, Robbie Russell

Italy:  1 Massimo Cuttitta, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Massimo Giovanelli, 8 Wim Visser, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Luca Martin, 14 Cristian Stoica, 15 Matt Pini
Reserves:  Matteo Mazzantini, Marco Rivaro, Giampiero De Carli, Giuseppe Lanzi, Aaron Persico
Unused:  Carlo Orlandi, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  24000
Referee:  Kaplan j

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Bulloch G.C. 1, Leslie M.D. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 1, Townsend G.P.J. 1
Pen K.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

Italy
Tries:  De Carli G.P. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 6
Drop G.:  Dominguez D. 3