Scotland v Italy: Five takeaways as Finn Russell sums up ‘underwhelming’ performance while the Azzurri refuse to ‘roll over’

Our five takeaways from the action at Murrayfield in the Six Nations.
Following Scotland’s 31-19 victory over Italy in the Six Nations clash at Murrayfield, here’s our five takeaways.
Top line
Scotland kickstarted their Six Nations campaign with a hard-fought five-try victory over Italy headlined by a wonderful hat-trick by centre Huw Jones.
Rory Darge opened the scoring after a frenetic start to the match as he powered over the line before Duhan van der Merwe tore down the touchline, leaving Italian bodies in his wake before linking up with Jones on his inside.
Those two scores looked to have set the tone for a dominant Scottish performance, but Tommy Allan got the Italians on the board with two well-taken penalties to keep the Azzurri within touching distance.
A wonderful offload from Dave Cherry sent Ben White over for Scotland’s third try with Allan again reducing the lead to 10 by the break.
After starting the match sluggishly, the Italians came out flying in the second half and quickly levelled matters through Allan’s boot and an intercept try from Juan Ignacio Brex.
Scotland needed something special to turn the tide and it came through the smallest man on the pitch as Darcy Graham sped through the white wall in front of him and linked up with Jones to grab his second.
When Jones got the ball out wide in the Italian 22, it was all but over as the Scotsman showed some neat footwork to avoid the traffic and seal the result and complete his hat-trick.
Breakdown battle
Scotland dominated most of the first half as they managed to go through long passages of play with ball in hand and much of that was through the sheer brutality and effectiveness of their breakdown work.
Co-captain Darge was on fire in this facet of the game as he came up with key pilfers whenever the Italians even looked like threatening the Scottish defence, but he was just as key in possession as he combined superbly with the likes of Matt Fagerson, Jamie Ritchie and Jonny Gray.
It was an epic battle at the breakdown throughout the match and whoever gained momentum there, seemingly got the upper hand in the match and on the scoreboard. Much of Italy’s success in the second half came through a much-improved breakdown effort with the likes of Danilo Fischetti, Lorenzo Cannone, Manuel Zuliani and Tommaso Menoncello and even fly-half Paolo Garbisi.
It was only when Gregor Townsend turned to his bench did the momentum swing one final time as the Scottish forwards on the bench won the final battle setting the platform for the likes of Tom Jordan, Graham, George Horne and Jones.
Italian resolve
At 19-9, Italian teams of old would have rolled over and end the 80 minutes on the end of a good old spanking. But this is very much a different generation of players who believe that they can not only compete in Six Nations matches but win them.
The Azzurri beat the Scots, Wales and pushed France all the way last year and despite a poor start, they did not give in as they chased what would have been a brilliant come-from-behind victory.
Brex’s try levelled things after a much better performance early in the second and when he dove over the line, there was very much a feeling that the Azzurri could go on to clinch back-to-back wins over Scotland.
Even before then, Italy’s decision to take the posts instead of going for the line was an indication that they believed that they could fight back but they needed to build their innings rather than just come out slogging. It was a mature approach from the Azzurri and they were almost rewarded because of it, only for the individual brilliance of Graham robbing them of that.
Underwhelming Scotland
That’s a fair summary of this Scotland performance as they showed flashes of quality but, on the whole, they simply must be a lot better when they tackle Ireland.
Co-captain Russell was one of the main contributors to Scotland’s hot and cold showing as needless offloads, an intercept pass that Brex gobbled up for a score and a general below-par day at the office could have come back to bite his team and almost did when the scores were locked at 19-19 early in the second period.
It feels like a common theme with Scotland in the Six Nations that consistency in performance is a problem and if they play at this level again they will lose.
Lions watch
As mentioned, we are not sure Russell did his Lions starting hopes a shot in the arm but his half-back partner White was sprightly and certainly caught the eye.
Staying in the backline and Van der Merwe battled on bravely with an ankle injury while Graham put his hand up with an all-action second half. But the standout, of course, has to be Jones after his hat-trick. He will be delighted to prove he can impress without Sione Tuipulotu alongside him and his third try was excellent.
Up front the props, Pierre Schoeman and Zander Fagerson, were busy around the park but did struggle at a point at scrum time. But, like in the backline, one man was head and shoulders above the rest as Darge threw down a statement performance to Andy Farrell that he is more than capable of pulling on the red shirt.
READ MORE: Scotland v Italy, AS IT HAPPENED: Huw Jones hat-trick steers hosts to victory