Scotland’s only home warm-up for next month’s World Cup went as well as could possibly be expected as they ran in six tries in the sunshine and outclassed Italy at BT Murrayfield.
After last week’s dour affair in Turin, this was a feast for the record 40,000 plus crowd with the home side, restored with many first choice players for the first time in the preparation campaign, playing with confidence and verve.
There were still plenty of early season errors but the Scots were clinical for the most part, punishing poor Italian handling with three second half interception tries.
Al Dickinson won the sponsor’s man of the match but it was a toss-up between him and John Barclay, back in the side after a two year gap, who had an excellent hour at open side including his third try for Scotland.
Tim Visser and Sean Lamont had two each with Mark Bennett scoring the sixth and final one in injury-time.
Scotland started brightly with three early scrum penalties as Italy looked to put on a shove but ended up under pressure, Laidlaw kicking his side ahead with a penalty after four minutes.
They then scored a well-worked try from slow ball after several phases inside the Italian 22, Finn Russell’s beautifully judged cross kick basketed by Lamont, the veteran wing deftly keeping his balance down the touchline for the score, converted by the skipper.
Laidlaw pushed Scotland further ahead with two more penalties before Italy took advantage of a defensive lapse for a score on almost their first attack.
They already had a penalty advantage from a collapsed maul when Tomasso Allan’s speculative chip into space in-goal was fumbled by Visser off Laidlaw’s head and Michele Campagnaro fell on the loose ball for the try.
Allan converted but the Scots came back with a concerted spell of attacking pressure that saw Francesco Minto sin-binned, Barclay spinning off a maul for the try on his comeback.
Laidlaw converted and despite some confusion as time expired in the half, the Scots were a handy 23-7 up at the break.
They quickly built on that eight minutes into the second half when Russell’s long miss-pass picked out Visser unmarked for the third try, which went unconverted.
Italy tried to fight back but Lamont sped in for an interception try from half-way and Visser completed his own brace by snaring another five yards from his own line and sprinting away untouched for a try converted by Russell.
The trio of second half breakaway tries was completed after Italian replacement Michele Rizzo was yellow carded for stamping on Scots sub Gordon Reid, Bennett scampering away after stealing ball to score at the other end.
Att 43,831
Scotland: S Hogg (R Jackson 69); S Lamont, M Bennett, P Horne (M Scott 51), T Visser; F Russell, G Laidlaw (capt, H Pyrgos 66); A Dickinson (G Reid 64), R Ford (S McInally 58), WP Nel (J Welsh 64); J Gray, G Gilchrist (R Harley 61); R Wilson, J Barclay (B Cowan 61), D Denton.
Italy: L McLean, A Esposito (A Masi 51), M Campagnaro, L Morisi, L Sarto; T Allan (C Canna 75), G Palazzini; M Aguero (M Rizzo 34), L Ghiraldini (A Manici 66), M Castrogiovanni (D Chistolini 56); M Fuser (Q Geldenhuys 56), J Furno; A Zanni, F Minto (M Bergmasco 66), S Vunisa.
Ref: R Poite (FFR)