It has taken 33 matches and some heart-breaking close failures, but Italy finally have claimed an away win in the Six Nations, beating Scotland 17-37 in Edinburgh on Saturday.
Had they not won though, it would have been a calamity, as Scotland presented their visitors with a 21-point head start within the first seven minutes!
But after nearly forty minutes of rock-like defence as the Azzurri fought off the Scottish comeback, the Italians dominated the final ten minutes to make the game safe.
Rome, the Eternal City, is history. There is history at every turn. The whole of Italy is one great miracle of history. But today Italy made history in Scotland. Hadrian built a wall to keep the Picts out, for the Romans had no stomach to invade Caledonia stern and wild. Today Marco Bortolami went where Hadrian did not go. He went to the heart of Scotland and made history. For the first time Italy won a Six nations match abroad and won it well. Afterwards exhausted and exhilarated Alessandro Troncon, heaving for breath, announced that this was "the start of anew era for Italian rugby".
What a day, what a victory -- and what a muzzle for those who have been preaching Italy out of the Six Nations.
If New Zealand had been playing Brazil -- at rugby that is -- and after six minutes the full might of the All Blacks had scored three tries and led 21-0, you would not be surprised and the All Blacks would feel pleased with themselves. But this was not All Blacks against Sambas. This was Italy against Scotland at Murrayfield, and after six minutes Italy led 21-0. It must be a unique situation in the annals of the International Championship however many nations were playing.
Three tries in six minutes!
Murrayfield was stunned.
For the first two the loudest sound in Murrayfield was produced by Italian voices. For the third the Italian voices were drowned by the ugly sound of Scots booing Scots on a wintry afternoon.
The first try came after 18 seconds. Italy kicked off, the Scots secured the ball and for some reason Phil Godman of the highlighted hair opted to chip. Flying Mauro Bergamasco charged the chip down, gathered the ball just short of the goal-line and plunged over for the try.
Mistake 1, try 1.
The Scots spread the ball wide across the field, expansive but going nowhere till Chris Cusiter passed to his left towards Rob Dewey but into the arms of Andrea Scanavacca who raced 40 metres to score under the posts, for Hugo Southwell was on the attack.
Mistake 2, try 2
And just four minutes had passed as Italian voices echoed around Murrayfield.
That was it, one thought, let's settle down to reality.
Again Scotland went through their side-to-side, going-nowhere routine till Cusiter fired a long looping pass towards Southwell on the left wing, but Kaine Robertson leapt up and the Italianate New Zealander raced off over the acres to score at the posts. 21-0 after six minutes.
21-0 after six minutes. There has never been anything like it in the International Championship, and the Scots booed Scots.
For the rest of the match the Scots had the majority of possession and for most of the rest they had the majority of territory. Time and again they eschewed penalty kicks at goal in favour of attacking line-outs but the Italians tackled like heroes, every man an Horatio, keeping the Gaelic attackers back from their line.
Oh, Scotland got a try, a funny one. First they knocked on, yet again, but Sergio Parisse did something silly off the ball and they had a chance to make another line-out. They attacked and then Dewey squeezed through a gap with lots of referee assistance. He almost stopped running as he expected to be called back. He was not called back and fell to the ground as Troncon attacked. Falling to the ground gave him the weird try that made the score 21-7.
Penalties kept Scotland on the attack. They had eight penalties before Italy had one, 10-4 in the first half, 20-10 in the match as a whole.
But then Italy got on the attack. Italy were penalised, Troncon tapped and Italy were at the Scottish line, right under their posts. Simon Taylor hung on and was yellow-carded. Italy kicked the goal and led 24-7.
There was no scoring while he was away though Scotland eventually kicked a penalty at goal when Troncon used his hands illegally at a tackle/ruck of sorts.
The half ended 24-10 to Italy.
Italy attacked first in the second half but Scanavacca knocked on. Twenty minutes went with the Scots keeping things tighter. One way to avoid the intercept is to keep on with pick-'n-go!
The Scottish try -- a proper one and a great one -- came after twenty minutes in the half when they went midfield from a line-out and then back to their left where Paterson sliced between Bortolami and Salvatore Perugini to speed nearly 50 metres for a try which he converted. 24-17.
The Scots had a sniff of unlikely victory, but, just as Italy had started so brilliantly, so they finished the stronger of the two as they throttled the life out of Scotland keeping them pinned in their own territory till the match was lost and won. When Allen Jacobsen was penalised at a scrum, Scanavacca lobbed over the kick. 27-17 with 14 minutes to go.
They came back and could have had another simple kick had Perugini not had a rush of madness and stamped gratuitously on a prone Scot. The penalty was reversed and Scotland cleared but still the Italians were hammering at the door.
Sean Lamont was Scotland's great hope, it seemed, for they kept hurling the ball his way in the hope that the big wing could work a wonder. But when he was penalised and then vocalised his dissent, Scanavacca made it 390-17 with eight minutes left. The Scots were well and truly cooked.
But it got worse as the Italians set up a camp in the Scots left corner and mauled and mauled as Generalissimo Troncon directed till eventually he, Troncon, scored the try which the television match official conformed was indeed a try.
Scanavacca converted from far out.
The Scots had their best attacking period in the last two minutes, Gonzalo Canale was sent to the sin bin for a tackle offence and still the Italians hurled them back. With three seconds left for play they sent on Ramiro Pez and Paul Griffin so that the whole squad could win historic caps.
Imagine the overflowing of joy at this most famous victory.
Man of the Match: There were all those heroic Italians who deserve medals but none as much as Alessandro Troncon.
Moment of the Match: Take your pick of those three tries in six minutes. But there was a telling moment at a break in play after 60 minutes when Chris Cusiter stood there looking downhearted and bewildered and Alessandro Troncon gave him a pat on the head. Cheering up was not possible but it was a decent moment, also an indication of relative fortunes.
Villain of the Match: Who wants villains on such an historic day?
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Tries: Dewey, Paterson
Cons: Paterson 2
Pen: Paterson
For Italy:
Tries: Mauro Bergamasco, Scanavacca, Robertson, Troncon
Cons: Scanavacca 4
Pens: Scanavacca 3
Yellow cards: Taylor (Scotland, 20, deliberate infringement); Canale (Italy, 80 deliberate infringement)
Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Rob Dewey, 11 Chris Paterson (c),10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Dave Callam, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Jim Hamilton, 19 Allister Hogg, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Andrew Henderson, 22 Nikki Walker.
Italy: 15 Roland De Marigny, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Andrea Masi, 10 Andrea Scanavacca, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami (c), 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero
Replacements: 16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Carlos Nieto, 19 Valerio Bernabo, 20 Maurizio Zaffiri, 21 Paul Griffen, 22 Ramiro Pez
Referee: Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (England), Hugh Watkins (Wales)
Television match official: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assessor: Patrick Robin (France)
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