Scotland continued their stranglehold on Six Nations rivals Italy with a 34-13 victory at the Singapore National Stadium on Saturday.
The Scots have now won eight of the nine previous meetings between these sides with that solitary loss only coming by a three-point margin.
Following up their 29-0 trouncing of the Azzurri in the Six Nations in March, the Scots asserted their dominance over the Italians here once again.
It was a convincing performance in Gregor Townsend's first match in charge of the Scottish national team. What will please him the most is their creativity on attack and Finn Russell's excellent display at fly-half.
Despite the Scots dominating the territory and possession stakes, they were unable to turn this dominance into points for the majority of the first-half. Much of this had to with the Italians' dogged defence and conservative gameplan. The Azzurri seemed to be more focused on not conceding points than scoring any of their own. Their attack lacked in imagination and was largely blunt and route one, preferring to take it up through the forwards on the fringes of the ruck as opposed to going wide.
The first half was largely devoid of any try-scoring opportunities with the fly-halves exchanging penalties. It was a stop-start 40 minutes in which both sides struggled for continuity on attack until the Scots came to life with five minutes to go.
Finally, the try came on the stroke of half-time and it was a well-deserved one. It was scrum-half Price who reached over after good work by his forwards.
There was still time for one more. With the hooter already gone, Russell showed his class by chipping over an onrushing Italian defence for wing Visser to collect and dot down. It was superb play from Finn who exploited the space behind the Azzurri defence to great effect as Scotland took a 15-3 lead in to the interval.
Scotland continued their dominance straight after the break with their third try. This time it came from a well-controlled driving maul with hooker Ford going over at the back. Russell added the extras as they took a 22-3 early second-half lead.
After repeated warnings by referee Paul Williams to the Italians for infringements at the breakdown, Dean Budd was sin-binned six minutes into the second-half for going off his feet.
Scotland's fourth try was a combination of superb interplay and expert handling. Russell made the break with Hoyland and Ben Toolis involved in the build-up that led to Ford grabbing his brace. It was a memorable team try.
Italy got their first try of the match when they profited on an errant Scotland pass to intercept. From the intercept, Maxime Mbanda offloaded to Campagnaro who showed good support play and a sharp turn of pace to dot down.
The Azzurri were guilty of more indiscipline. Referee Williams yellow-carded Italian substitute Abraham Steyn in the 73rd minute for lifting Price off the ground and putting him down in a dangerous horizontal position after the whistle had blown.
Soon after, Hoyland got on the scoresheet as the pressure told on the Italians for playing with 14 men. Taylor drew the man cleverly to tie in the last defender before giving the late pass to Hoyland who was not going to be stopped with his pace.
Italy grabbed a second in the closing minutes. After sustained pressure on the Scottish defence, Edoardo Gori's box-kick was well collected by Esposito who went over the line.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Tries: Campagnaro, Esposito
Pen: Allan
Yellow Cards: Budd, Steyn
For Scotland:
Tries: Price, Visser, Ford 2, Hoyland
Cons: Taylor, Russell
Pen: Russell
Italy: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Tommaso Boni, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Edoardo Gori (c), 8 Robert Julian Barbieri, 7 Maxime Mata Mbanda, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Ornel Gega, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Andries van Schalkwyk, 20 Abraham Steyn, 21 Marcello Violi, 22 Carlo Cane, 23 Tommaso Benvenuti
Scotland: 15 Duncan Taylor, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 Matt Scott, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price, 8 Josh Strauss, 7 Ryan Wilson, 6 John Barclay (c), 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Willem Nel, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Dell
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Rob Harley, 20 Magnus Bradbury, 21 Cornell du Preez, 22 Henry Pyrgos, 23 Peter Horne
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Mike Fraser (New Zealand), Tim Baker (Hong Kong)
TMO: Minoru Fuji (Japan)
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