Scotland 47 Italy 15

Scotland recorded a useful 47-15 win over Italy in their pre-Rugby World Cup friendly at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, with the home side scoring six tries to two.

As they did on their June tour of South Africa, Scotland showed plenty of enterprise in this game, with halfbacks Mike Blair -- who was playing in place of regular skipper Bryan Redpath -- and Gordon Ross sending the ball down their backline as much as possible.

The Italians, however, defended strongly, with Scotland having to rely on the boot of Ross for their first few points, the Leeds Tykes No.10 slotting two penalties within the first quarter for a 6-3 lead, Italy's three points coming from the boot of their fly-half, Leicester's Ramiro Pez.

Scotland finally breached Italy's defence on the 20-minute mark when they sent the ball down their backline, with good work from wings Simon Danielli and Chris Paterson -- who replaced the injured Kenny Logan in the second minute of the game -- taking the ball down the right-hand touchline.

Their job, however, was not done, with the ball going left after some good work at the tackle and Sale flanker Jason White trotting over for the try, which Ross did not convert.

But Italy fought back soon after White's score, with a try from their No.7 Scott Palmer.  Captain and scrum-half Alessandro Troncon took a quick tap, when his side were on the attack in Scotland's 22, and Palmer powered over.  Pez missed the conversion, but Scotland were back in it at 11-8.

Italy's renewed hope was to be shortlived, however, when they had fullback Gert Peens yellow-carded by referee Donal Courtney for an infringement at the tackle, Ross rubbing salt into their wounds by slotting the subsequent penalty.

Scotland's 14-8 lead soon became 21-8 when White intercepted an intended long pass from Pez, with the hulking back rower racing away before being caught by Azzurri outside centre Andrea Masi.  But White had the presence of mind to get the ball away in the tackle, flinging a neat spin pass out, which bounced up and into the hands of Scotland's No.13, James McLaren.

At 21-8 Scotland finally had the breathing space they were looking for, and just before Peens came back onto the field -- after his 10-minute stint in the sin bin -- the home side got in for another score, this time little No.8 Mike Blair, who started the move with a cheeky tap penalty.

Blair darted ahead, passed to Paterson, who made good ground on the left-wing, before passing back inside to Blair, who was able to finish.  Ross converted and Scotland would have been elated with their 28-8 half-time lead.

Ross missed two penalty attempts early in the second half, which would certainly have put the Azzurri right out of contention, and the visitors made them pay just minutes later with a try by Nicola Mazzucato after a wonderful break from Pez.

Pez swerved, dummied and ran past would-be defenders before getting support from his centres Cristian Stoica and Andrea Masi, the latter throwing out a wildish pass to Mazzucato, who controlled the ball before speeding away to the tryline.

Pez's conversion took the score to 28-15, but any hopes of more Italian resistance were dashed in the 49th minute when Ross dived over for a try after good work from Danielli again.  Ross missed the conversion (he ended with five successful kicks from 10 attempts at goal) -- but 33-15 just seemed a bridge too far for the visitors.

Italy seemed to lose confidence after Ross's score, while Scotland added two more tries in the closing stages, one for debutant Danielli and one for replacement Brendan "Chainsaw" Laney, who is beginning to look more like a front rower than a back these days!

Man of the match:  Scotland back rower Jason White wins our vote for an all-action display on the side of the scrum.  He ran strongly, tackled well and was always up in support -- as he proved with his try.  Others to stand out were halfbacks Blair and Ross and wing Danielli, while fly-half Ramiro Pez and flanker Scott Palmer impressed for the Azzurri.

Moment of the match:  Simon Danielli's try was just reward for his excellent work-rate.  He showed enough in his first Test to suggest that he could be a force at Test level, while scoring a try would have made his debut that much sweeter.

Villain of the match:  Nobody or nothing.  We were treated to good clean rugby in Edinburgh!

Yellow card(s):  Gert Peens (Italy, 29)

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Bruce Douglas, 2 Robbie Russell, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Nathan Hines, 5 Scott Murray (c), 6 Jon Petrie, 7 Jason White, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Michael Blair, 10 Gordon Ross, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Andrew Henderson, 13 James McLaren, 14 Simon Danielli, 15 Ben Hinshelwood
Reserves:  Iain Fullarton, Brendan Laney, Gordon McIlwham, Gordon Bulloch, Martin Leslie, Chris Paterson
Unused:  Graeme Beveridge

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 3 Salvatore Perugini, 4 Marco Bortolami, 5 Santiago Dellape, 6 Scott Palmer, 7 Maurizio Zaffiri, 8 Matthew Phillips, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Ramiro Pez, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 12 Andrea Masi, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Nicola Mazzucato, 15 Gert Peens
Reserves:  Gonzalo Canale, Ramiro Martinez-Frugoni, Fabio Ongaro, Mauro Bergamasco, Francesco Mazzariol, Sergio Parisse
Unused:  Juan Manuel Queirolo

Attendance:  25304
Referee:  Courtney d.

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Danielli S.C.J. 1, McLaren J.G. 1, Ross G. 1, Blair M.R.L. 1, White J.P.R. 1, Laney B.J. 1
Conv:  Ross G. 2, Paterson C.D. 2
Pen K.:  Ross G. 3

Italy
Tries:  Mazzucato N. 1, Palmer S. 1
Conv:  Pez R. 1
Pen K.:  Pez R. 1