Scotland Women 14
Italy Women 12
JUST like busses: you wait seven years for a win and then two come along in the same season. If anybody wanted proof of the impressive strides the Scots have made since Shade Munro took over coaching, this was it – a classic and utterly professional example of taking chances and then sitting on the lead.
"We know it has been building and coming for the last couple of years," said Lisa Martin, the captain. "To be in with an opportunity like this and in this environment is fantastic. If you had told me at the start of the Six Nations that we sitting in this position, I would not have believed you.
"It is fantastic, but we are not going to get complacent. Winning is addictive and is becoming a habit for us."
For the first quarter, it had been a classic case of the Scots backs against the Italian pack. as the vistitors kept things tight and they reaped the rewards.
A Scots mistake gave them a line out maul; they won another penalty and repeated the exercise. This time the Scots gave way, and Bettoni Melisa, the hooker burrowed over for the score, converted by Sillari Michela, the wing.
That was bad enough but more sloppy handling gave Italy the chance to repeat same tactic on the other side of the field and it worked almost exactly the same with Melisa getting her second. Crucially, this time it was too far out for the conversion.
Scotland of a couple of seasons ago would have folded at that setback but this team is made from different stuff. They were starting to even things up in the forwards and as the weather dried out, began to find openings to counterattack as their strike runners came into the game.
Martin, the centre, was at the heart of it all, crashing through the midifeld and just when it looked a though she had run out of options, she spotted Chloe Rollie, the full back, wider out. A perfectly placed kick and Rollie was over to the start of the comeback.
That lifted the Scots who started to find space out wide with Rollie dancing through the defence like a mini Stuart Hogg and Martin adding the power. It was the fowards, however, who broke the home defence open with a series of drives so that by the time it got to the backs, they had players over with Rollie finishing her second score.
Crucially Lana Skelton, the hooker, took the kicking duties and though neither conversion was easy, she landed them both, giving her side a narrow lead at the break. Through the second half was scoreless, the Scots were in charge and a more experienced side would have taken advantage of a couple of breaks before they wound down the clock over the final minutes.
Scotland women: C Rollie (Murrayfield Wanderers); M Gaffney (Edinburgh University, E Sinclair, Murrayfield Wanderers, 66), L Thomson (Edinburgh University), L Martin (C) (Murrayfield Wanderers), R Lloyd (Edinburgh University); H Nelson (Murrayfield Wanderers), S Law (Murrayfield Wanderers); T Balmer (Worcester, H Lockhart, Hillhead Jordanhill 7-15, 67), L Skeldon (Hillhead Jordanhill), K Dougan (Edinburgh University, L Smith, Hillhead Jordanhill, 57), E Wassell (Murrayfield Wanderers), D McCormack (Aylesford Bulls, S Bonar, Lichfield, 57), J Forsyth (Hillhead Jordanhill, L O’Donnell, Worcester, 78), L McMillan (Hillhead Jordanhill), J Konkel (Hillhead Jordanhill).
Italy Women: F Manuela; S Michelle, C Mariagrtazia, S Sofia (B Elisa, 71), M Maria; R Beatrice, B Sara; C Elisa, B Melissa, F Maria (E Michela, 55), L Isabella, T Alice, A Ilaria, G Elissa, C Lucia.
Referee: F Murphy (Ireland)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here