Blair Kinghorn rose to the problem of changing Finn Russell at stand-off as he scored a hat-trick of tries to assist Scotland finish their Six Nations marketing campaign with a bonus-point 26-14 victory over spirited Italy.
The versatile Edinburgh again went over the road both aspect of half-time so as to add to an earlier landing by Duhan Van Der Merwe. And he then accomplished the scoring within the final second of a hard-fought recreation because the Scots fended off an Azzurri fightback to make sure they ended the championship with three wins out of 5 for the primary time since 2018.
Italy had an opportunity to get the scoreboard ticking after they awarded a penalty on the 10-metre line within the fourth minute however Tommaso Allan – who was born in Scotland – noticed his kick drift simply left of the posts.
Four minutes later, nonetheless, Allan bought the Azzurri off the mark when he kicked a penalty from the 22.
The Scots sparked into life within the thirteenth minute when Van Der Merwe obtained an offload from Huw Jones huge on the left and did beautifully to trip the problem of Paolo Garbisi and plant the ball down simply contained in the touchline. Kinghorn was huge along with his conversion try.
The Italians managed to get their noses again in entrance three minutes later when Allan scored one other penalty.
The guests had been pressured right into a change within the twenty third minute when Edoardo Iachizzi went off injured and was changed by Niccolo Cannone.
Six minutes later, they suffered an additional blow when prop Danilo Fischetti was proven a yellow card for repeated scrum infringements by the Italian entrance row. Winger Simone Gesi was quickly sacrificed as Pietro Ceccarelli was launched from the bench to strengthen the entrance row.
Blair Kinghorn notched a hat-trick at Murrayfield
(PA Wire)
Scotland made the additional man depend inside a matter of seconds as Ben White took the ball from the bottom of the scrum, carried ahead and performed in Kinghorn, who noticed a spot and dived over. The quantity 10 duly transformed his personal attempt.
The hosts continued on the entrance foot early within the second half and Kinghorn bought himself a second attempt simply 4 minutes after the restart following one other help by White. The try-scorer once more added the extras.
Just as Scotland seemed in full management, nonetheless, Italy bought themselves again within the match when Allan bounded over for a well-executed attempt on the left. The try-scorer missed then missed the prospect to carry the Azzurri inside a transformed attempt of victory when he fluffed his conversion try.
But 4 minutes later, team-mate Garbisi took over kicking duties and despatched a penalty hovering between the posts from simply outdoors the 10-metre line to cut back the deficit to simply 5 factors.
Italy piled on the stress within the closing levels and seemed like they could be about to power a victory earlier than Scotland broke away within the final motion of the match, with Kinghorn racing gleefully behind the posts after being handed a transparent run by Van Der Merwe. The quantity 10 capped a memorable afternoon for himself with a close-range conversion.
