Scotland trounce weak Italy

Scotland 47 Italy 15Scotland got their World Cup preparations off to a wonderful start on Saturday at Murrayfield with a record win over the team that has often proved their bogey.

But the result against a disappointing Italian side does not provide much indication of how the real thing will go, as Ian McGeechan pointed out. "It is a step in the right direction," the coach said. "However, we will not get carried away because there will be tougher challenges to come."

McGeechan gave some players on the fringes of his team a chance to show what they could do and none grabbed the opportunity more enthusiastically than Mike Blair. The slight scrumhalf kept the pace of the game high with numerous quick tap penalties and scored a spectacular try from one of them after Chris Paterson made the running up the left touchline.

The stand-ins kept their heads and kept on playing in the face of some stiff and sometimes late physical challenges. Jason White and James McLaren grabbed the other first-half scores, then Gordon Ross, Bath's debutant winger Simon Danielli and Brendan Laney added second-half tries.

"The guys put their bodies on the line for their country in tough conditions - and got what they deserved," said the captain Scott Murray. "Italy are a massive and physical team and they were hard to stop, but we did it very well and made the most of our chances."

The Italians did contribute two tries themselves, with a first-half effort from the New Zealand-born flanker Scott Palmer and a wonderful flowing move that went the length of the field just after the break that ended with Nicola Mazzucato scrambling over in the right-hand corner. But the Italian performance was deeply disappointing.

When their coach John Kirwan was asked whether this Scotland XV was better than the one that struggled to beat his side in March, the former All Black hit the nail on the head. "I'd say," he replied, "that we were much worse."

SCOTLAND: B Hinshelwood; S Danielli, J McLaren, A Henderson (B Laney, 60), K Logan (C Paterson, 1); G Ross, M Blair; T Smith, R Russell (G Bulloch, 35), B Douglas (G McIlwham, 70), S Murray, N Hines (Fullerton, 70), J White (M Leslie, 60), J Petrie, S Taylor.

ITALY: G Peens (Canale, 58); N Mazzucato (Mazzariol, 65), A Masi, C Stoica, Mirco Bergamasco; R Pez, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, C Festuccia (Ongaro, 65), S Perugini (Martinez, 65), S Dellape, M Bortolami, M Zaffiri (Auro Bergamasco, 55), S Palmer, M Philips (A Parisse, 55).

Referee: D Courtney (Ire).