Scotland’s slim Six Nations hopes over after shock defeat to Italy

Italy 31-29 Scotland

Scotland’s slim hopes of winning the Six Nations were shattered in Rome as Italy secured a famous victory, their first home win in this tournament since 2013.

This was Italy’s first victory over the Scots since 2015 and only their second Six Nations win since then, having beaten Wales in 2022.

The Azzurri will now have a chance to move off the base of the Six Nations table for the first time since 2015, while Gregor Townsend’s side suffered their second heartbreaking defeat of this tournament.

Within the first four minutes of a warm afternoon in a sold-out Stadio Olimpico, Paolo Garbisi nailed an early penalty to at least start banishing the demons of his missed effort in the draw against France two weeks ago.

But just three minutes later, prop Zander Fagerson barged his way over the line after 18 phases of Scottish pressure, before wing Kyle Steyn then extended that lead after a clinical move started by a powerful Duhan van der Merwe run.

But a blistering start then continued with the first Italian try, as Ignacio Brex perfectly timed his run onto a dinked kick from Martin Page-Role, sneaking ahead of George Horne to score.

Prop Pierre Schoeman the finished off a rolling maul on 29 minutes after Finn Russell had converted a penalty to give the Scots a 22-10 lead, but Italy then began to ramp up the pressure in front of a raucous home crowd.

As they did in their controversial loss to France earlier in this tournament, Scotland failed to capitalise on the better of the early play, consistently looking threatening without actually converting enough of these opportunities into points.

Italy then dominated the closing phase of the first half, with both Garbisi and Page-Relo converting their penalties, the latter from 45 yards, to somewhat close the gap.

It appeared as though the Azzuri had not done enough to capitalise on their late first-half advantage when George Horne crossed two minutes into the second-half, but Schoeman was judged to have obstructed the opposition and the try was ruled out.

And just two minutes later, Harlequins wing Louis Lynagh raced onto an onrushing grubber to score on his debut just weeks after his move to Benetton was announced for the 2024-25 season.

Garbisi missed the resulting conversion to bring the hosts within one point of Scotland, before Stephen Varney crossed from the back of the ruck to give Italy a six-point lead.

Sam Skinner then scored a late converted try to almost drag Scotland back into the game and across the line, but the resilient Italians secured their first Six Nations win in nine years.

They now move above Wales in the table before their final fixture of this year’s tournament in Cardiff next Saturday, giving them a very strong chance of not winning the Wooden Spoon for the first time since 2015.