A late try by substitute scrum half Stephen Biggart snatched victory for Scotland against Italy in the under-21 international in Benevento this afternoon. David Blair, adding to two penalty goals, converted to stretch the Scots’ lead to seven points with only six minutes left to play.

Biggart’s try was an opportunist score. Another replacement, Chris Dunlop, had set up a ruck on the home 22 in front of the post, and the Italians seemed to concentrate on Blair’s deliberate move into a position to drop a goal. Biggart was sharp to spot space beside the ruck, and he sniped through the gap to run in between the posts.

Scotland’s win was their second in eight days, adding to their success against Ireland in Athlone. Thus ended a six nations campaign for the Scots – slightly less than break-even after successive defeats by France, Wales, and England last month.

For Blair, the campaign has been a personal successive, at least in scoring terms. His first penalty goal took his Scotland under-21 tally to 97 points, passing Brian Archibald’s record by one point, and the stand-off’s second took his overhaul into three figures as well as stretching the Scots’ lead to 14-6 at half-time. His total is now 102 over the past two years, and he still has the IRB Under 21 World Championship to come in France in June.

Ben Cairns scored Scotland’s other try. James King also contributed the first-half scoring with a penalty goal from just two paces inside the Italian half.

As a match, however, today’s was not the best. It was too fractured for any positive pattern to develop. Moreover, both teams seemed frustrated by the inconsistencies of the French referee. He was sharp on some elements of the offside laws but ignored others. Quality rugby cannot be played in such circumstances.

Blair’s first penalty goal, after a scrummage infringement, gave Scotland the lead after only two minutes. Buso had the chance to equalise in kind two minutes later, but he was wide from simple range. He was successful for farther out with a penalty in 12 minutes, and Italy had the first real chance of a try when Iain Kennedy was forced to carry over, conceding a five-metre scrum. Scotland survived that, and King restored the lead in 19 minutes.

Only then did the Scots spark into cohesive action for their first try. John Beattie charged off a scrum just inside the Italian half, his flankers followed up to extend the thrust, and James Eddie’s pass to the right sent Cameron Johnston on a thrust to the right corner. The left wing was squeezed out there. But the Scots still had the scent of a score when Ian Nimmo tapped a loose Italian throw-in infield. Kennedy followed suit with a swift transfer, and Cairns finished off with the try in 29 minutes.

Blair missed the conversion, Buso cut the Scots’ lead to 11-6 with his second goal, and the visitors suffered a further less when John Barclay was sin-binned for back-chat after the referee had denied the forwards a drive-over try. However, Blair’s garryowen in first-half injury time procured an offside penalty, and the stand-off kicked his second goal.

Buso missed a penalty early in the second half as well as conversion attempt after Varani had escaped up the right from a Neethling drive for a try. Scotland’s response was an Addison kick up the left touchline for Scott Newlands to trap Robuschi into conceding a penalty. The Scots opted for a kick into the left corner, but that chance was lost to a squint throw-in.

Robuschi equalised with a penalty goal in 61 minutes, and Addison responded with a kick ahead that forced a five-metre scrummage. That chance, too, was lost, this time because of a penalty for “in from the side”. That was frustrating as the referee had ignored much of that earlier in the game, and he added to his inconsistency by only penalising Italian back-chat, the very infringement for which Barclay had earlier been yellow-carded.

Scotland, however, could put all that behind them when Biggart scored his opportunist try.

Italy u21 – Riccardo Robuschi; Michele Sepe, Enrico Patrizio, Marco Neethling, Diego Varani; Paolo Buso, Stefano Canale; David Giazzon, Valerio Viceree’, Andrea Michelini, Alberto Saccardo (captain), Mantvydas Tveraga, Paul Derbyshire, Marco Filippucci, Nicola Cattina. Substitutes – Enrico Ceccato for Patrizio (61 minutes), Alberto de Marchi for Giazzon (67).
Try, Varani; penalty goals, Buso (2), Robuschi.

Scotland u21 – James King (Border Reivers & Melrose); Cameron Johnston (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners & Currie), Iain Kennedy (Glasgow Warriors & Glasgow Hawks), Ben Addison (Stirling County); Dave Blair (Sale Sharks) captain, Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest); Ryan Grant (The Army), Sean Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP), David Young (Leicester Tigers), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors & Ayr), Ian Nimmo (Leicester Tigers), John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), John Beattie (Glasgow Warriors), Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh Gunners). Substitutes – Scott Newlands (Heriot’s) for MacDonald (10-17, 51-57, 69), Chris Dunlop (Durham University) for Kennedy (58), Stephen Biggart (Glasgow Hawks) for Laidlaw (67). Not used – Andrew Reekie (Currie), Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners & Boroughmuir), Calum Forrester (GHA), Robert Cairns (Boroughmuir).
Tries, Ben Cairns, Biggart; conversion, Blair; penalty goals, Blair (2), King.

Referee – Jean-Pierre Matheu (France).

This article was posted on 19-Mar-2006, 22:46 by Hugh Barrow.