Scotland 17 Italy 37

For a few years now, Italy have been threatening to do something like this.  In previous seasons, they've gone close to winning outside Italy in the Six Nations, not least in last year's draw with Wales.  Now, it's happened.  Not only have they won on the road, but they absolutely battered Scotland with a 20-point margin of victory, scoring the winning points while the game was less than seven minutes old.  Loose back play from the Scots enabled Mauro Bergomasco to charge down a Phil Godman kick less than 20 seconds in, chasing his own block to get the away side on the scoreboard before the first pints of Tennents had gone flat and rancid.

Perhaps it was the early score that made Chris Cusiter lose his head, as he tried to force passes inside his own half.  First Kaine Robertson and then Andrea Scanavacca were the men to profit, and if anyone had been experiencing a particularly stubborn toilet break at the start of the match, they would have missed Italy scoring more points than they had in the entire tournament prior to today.  As Scottish errors piled up and Chris Paterson spurned opportunities to kick for the posts, a Rob Dewey try on 12 minutes attenuated the gap.  Scotland, though, were to fail to build on this, and as the game moved into the second half, Italian mistakes went unpunished and the Azurri grew in confidence.  Scanavacca, a particularly wayward goalkicker prior to today, added points whenever possible, and when, a few moments from the end, Alessandro Troncon wriggled over, it was Italy's day.  Well done to them, and they must be taken seriously from now on.