Scotland 23 Italy 12: SCOTLAND HEAD coach Andy Robinson will today reveal his World Cup squad after securing a 100 per cent record from two warm-up matches.
Scotland followed up the 10-6 win over Ireland a fortnight ago by yesterday beating Italy 23-12 at Murrayfield.
The phoney war is now over – the next Scotland Test will be the September 10 World Cup clash with Romania in Invercargill before further Pool B fixtures with Georgia, Argentina and England.
Scotland prevailed courtesy of prop Alasdair Dickinson’s first international try, an opportunist’s score from Blair and 13 points from the boot of Dan Parks, whose experience in managing a game may edge him in front of Ruaridh Jackson in the battle at outhalf.
Italy had troubled their hosts, with Tommaso Benvenuti finishing off a length-of-the-field move and Fabio Sementazo touching down early in the second half after wriggling out of an attempted Richie Vernon tackle, but Scotland held on.
SCOTLAND: R Lamont; Evans, De Luca, Morrison, Danielli; Parks, Blair; Dickinson, S Lawson, Low; Hines, Kellock, Brown, Barclay, Vernon. Replacements: Walker for Danielli (55 mins), Murray for Low (57 mins), Gray for Hines, Cusiter for Blair (both 61 mins), Jackson for Parks (65 mins), D Hall for S Lawson (74 mins), Rennie for Vernon (72 mins).
ITALY: Masi; Benvenuti, Canale, Garcia, M Bergamasco; Orquera, Semenzato; Lo Cicero, Ghiraldini, Castrogiovanni; Del Fava, van Zyl; Derbyshire, Barbieri, Parisse. Replacements: DApice for Ghiraldini (40 mins), Furno for Del Fava (51 mins), Bocchino for Orquera (56 mins), Zanni for Derbyshire (62 mins), Cittadini for Lo Cicero (76 mins).
Referee: D Pearson (England).
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