Italy got their first Six Nations win at the home of Scottish rugby in 2007 on a dreadful afternoon when unforced Scottish errors gifted three back-to-back tries in the opening quarter of an hour. At the time it felt like an all-time low point for Scottish Rugby, a point of no return. Today’s game had all the potential to go beyond that depth and further. With the Tonga game and last weeks mauling at Twickenham still very fresh in the mind there was a palatable feeling of nervousness around the 50,000 strong crowd in EH12 today.
A good, dynamic start by Scotland had the murmurs of discontent and worry turning slowly to encouragement as a sense of belief built up from the ashes of disappointment. However, performance alone means nothing without points at International level.
It was therefore nothing short of pure relief when the first try finally came and when you need someone to find the line these days in those distant (and often neglected) corners of the Murrayfield pitch, Tim Visser is the man to nail those chances. All of a sudden Italy’s key men of Parisse, Orquera and Castrogivanni looked remarkably quiet and as the half grew tentatively to a close Scotland saw out a solid if unspectacular forty minutes. If nothing, they led the Italians 13-0 and had done the job of steadying the ship at least.
If the first half was about consolidation, then the second was about obliteration. Scotland opened up in the first five minutes with a well worked try from Matt Scott and then a full length of the pitch interception and gallop by the increasingly brilliant Stuart Hogg, now a sure fire Lions contender. Greig Laidlaw maintained his kicking form and all of sudden Scotland were bossing the game as the crowd began to spontaneously belt out Flower of Scotland.
Harley, Laidlaw, Gray, Hamilton, Murray and Hogg were all shining bright in an all-round solid performance from the whole Scottish squad. Italy on the other hand were poor, led by an out-of-sorts Parisse who took to moaning at the ref and fighting. Last weeks hero Orquera was tactically removed after 55 minutes with his tail firmly between his legs and their usually dominant pack were being shunted about in the scrum. They simply had no answer to this new found Scottish self-belief. After an aborted try by Scott was knocked off for a forward pass, Sean Lamont finished the rout by kicking the ball through a ruck, flicking it up off his feet and running it in under the posts. Scottish fans starved of tries over the years were now being treated to a feast. Italy even got in on the act with a soft try from Zanni but the day belonged to Scotland and the hearty cheer at the final whistle reflected that.
One swallow a summer certainly does not make but it is important to remember just quite how bad things could have been if Scotland hadn’t performed as well as they did today. Focus, accuracy and, most importantly, confidence was the key and Scotland delivered on all fronts.
Yet success comes in many forms and there were lots of reasons to celebrate during this extraordinary game but perhaps dodging the bullet of resurrecting the ghost of 2007 was the biggest one.
Disaster averted; time now to see if Scotland can kick on.
Scotland: 15-Stuart Hogg, 14-Sean Maitland, 13-Sean Lamont, 12-Matt Scott, 11-Tim Visser, 10-Ruaridh Jackson, 9-Greig Laidlaw; 1-Ryan Grant, 2-Ross Ford, 3-Euan Murray, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Jim Hamilton, 6-Robert Harley, 7-Kelly Brown (capt), 8-Johnnie Beattie
Replacements: 16-Pat MacArthur, 17-Moray Low, 18-Geoff Cross, 19-Alastair Kellock, 20-David Denton, 21-Henry Pyrgos, 22-Duncan Weir, 23-Max Evans
Tries: Visser, Scott, Hogg, Lamont Cons: Laidlaw 4 Pens: Laidlaw 2
Italy: 15-Andrea Masi, 14-Giovanbattista Venditti, 13-Tommaso Benvenuti, 12-Gonzalo Canale, 11-Luke McLean, 10-Luciano Orquera, 9-Tobias Botes; 1-Andrea Lo Cicero, 2-Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3-Martin Castrogiovanni, 4-Quintin Geldenhuys, 5-Francesco Minto, 6-Alessandro Zanni, 7-Simone Favaro, 8-Sergio Parisse (capt)
Replacements: 16-Davide Giazzon, 17-Alberto De Marchi, 18-Lorenzo Cittadini, 19-Antonio Pavanello, 20-Paul Derbyshire, 21-Kris Burton, 22-Gonzalo Garcia
Try: Zanni Con: BurtonPen: Orquera