On a humid Turin evening Scotland continued their 2015 Rugby World Cup build up with a hard-fought win against an experienced Italy side. Final Score: Italy 12 / 16 Scotland.

Tested in greasy conditions the Scots shut out Italy on the try–count, and capitalised on a rare open passage of play to score the decisive points.

Replacement scrumhalf Henry Pyrgos and centre Peter Horne helped open up a tight Italian defence in the final quarter of the match after Scotland had gone behind for the 1st time in the match 12 / 9.

After a sequence of repelled Scottish attacks an offload in the tackle from wing Sean Lamont to full-back Greig Tonks stretched the Italian defence.

Tonks passed outside to centre Matt Scott who made good yards, drawing the defence, before passing back inside for Pyrgos to finish with just five minutes of the match remaining.

Scotland were able to run down the clock through a series of scrums and tight play. Italy were awarded a free-kick in the last minute, they chose to scrum, were penalised, and Duncan Weir kicked the ball out to end the match.

The effort of the players clearly showing with little in the way of celebration marking the win after an energy sapping night in northern Italy.

Scotland Head Coach Vern Cotter was pleased to have recorded the win to reward the team’s efforts during the summer preparation camp.

He said: “We wanted a hard game and we got that.

“It was not an easy game, very physical. We are happy with a few things. It was a reasonable performance, not perfect and could have gone either way.

“Overall I think our character played a part because they ran very straight and direct and really tested our one-on-one defence and I thought we coped well with that.”

In front of a decent crowd the Scots were keen to reverse the last minute defeat at BT Murrayfield in this season’s RBS Six Nations, ahead of welcoming the Italians back to Edinburgh next weekend (Saturday 29 August).

Hoping to build on the positive performance last weekend in Dublin the Scotland side featured 11 changes from that match and gave debut caps to hooker Stuart McInally, flanker John Hardie and winger Rory Hughes.

In a frustrating 1st-half Italy looked more dangerous in attack, with Scotland defending well but not building a consistent platform of territory or possession, and were forced to live off scraps.

In fact the 1st 40 minutes followed a repetitive pattern of Italian attacks, Scotland winning turnovers and defending. Italian aggression in attack was well matched by Scottish aggression in defence.

The 9 / 9 halftime score showed an equality that wasn’t reflected in the flow of play. Weir slotted 3 penalties for Scotland, Gonzalo Garcia fired 2 and Tommaso Allan replied for Italy.

Italy only managed a solitary penalty in the 2nd half despite bringing lots of experience off the bench.

Allan then took the lead for the Azzuri for the 1st time with a penalty with 20 minutes to spare.

A further 15 nervous minutes followed until Scott made his blistering break down the nearside touchline offering the decisive inside pass to match-winner Pyrgos.

Scotland now look forward to playing in front of their home fans in the return fixture versus Italy at BT Murrayfield, this coming Saturday, 29 August in the 3rd of their Summer Series test matches.

Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Guglielmo Palazzani, 1 Matias Aguero, 2 Davide Giazzon, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys (Capatin), 5 Valerio Bernabo, 6 Francis Minto, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 8 Samuela Vunisa.
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldhini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Mauro Bergamasco, 21 Marcello Violi, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Luke McLean.

Scotland: 15 Greig Tonks, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Richie Vernon, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Rory Hughes, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 1 Gordon Reid, 2 Stuart McInally, 3 Mike Cusack, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Jim Hamilton, 6 Alasdair Strokosch (Captain), 7 John Hardie, 8 Adam Ashe.
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford on for McInally (52′), 17 Alasdair Dickinson on for Reid (44′), 18 Willem Nel on for Cusack (47′), 19 Kevin Bryce, 20 Hamish Watson on for Hardie (56′), 21 Henry Pyrgos on for Hidalgo-Clyne (62′), 22 Peter Horne on for Vernon (69′), 23 Damien Hoyland on for Hughes (63′).

Scorers:

Italy:

• Penalties – Tommasso Allen (4)
• Drop Goals – 0
• Tries – 0
• Conversions – 0

Scotland:

• Penalties – Duncan Weir (3)
  
• Drop Goals – 0
• Tries – Henry Pyrgos (1)
• Conversions – Duncan Weir (1)

Highlights and after match interviews: