Six Nations, Scotland-Italy 31-19

It starts with a defeat and with zero points in the standings the path of Italrugby in the Men’s Six Nations 2025: a match in which the Azzurri show two clearly distinguishable faces, a negative one in the first 30 minutes and in the last 20, a much better one, but not enough to get a better result, in the middle phase of the match.

The start è shocking to say the least: on 4’Rory Darge scores a try after a very long Scottish multiphase action, which began with a Blue error on the other side of the field. Finn Russel converts for 7-0. Barely five minutes pass and this time è Huw Jones smashes the ball on the ground after crossing the goal line, taking advantage of another Italy’s defensive laxity for 12-0, which becomes 14-0 after Russell’s extra points from the pitch.

Italy tries to regroup and scores, with Tommaso Allan, two free kicks on 21′ and 23′ that make it 14-6. The inertia of the match seems to change in favor of the men coached by Gonzalo Quesada but yet another ball-in-hand error allows the Scots to score the third goal, with Ben White, at 29′. Finn Russell does not convert, the score è 19-6, which becomes 19-9 at halftime thanks to another square by Allan.

In the resumption, the Azzurri fullback signed the fourth kick out of four attempts, bringing the Azzurri within breaking distance at 44′ two minutes later a mistake by Russell literally handed the ball to Nacho Brex, who intercepted and went under the posts for the goal that, after the usual Allan’s conversion, made it 19-19 and the impression that Italy could even take the lead.

It is, however, a mere illusion: in fact, Huw Jones is back in the limelight, scoring his second personal goal at 61′ (with Russell’s transformation) and scoring a hat-trick at 67′ (this time without transformation): è 31-19, and despite the efforts of the last ten minutes the result does not change anymore. Scotland thus won four points for victory and a bonus point for scoring four tries, Italy went home with zero points (at least one would have come from losing by 7 or fewer points).

Scotland also wins the 2025 edition of the Cuttitta Cup, contested precisely between the national team of the Thistle and Italy each year in memory of Massimo Cuttitta, an Italrugby player as well as, later, coach of Scotland’s forwards, who passed away in 2021. Next match for the Azzurri on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 3:15 p.m., in Rome against Wales, defeated Friday night with a clean sweep 43-0 by France.