Gray hails Scotland performance as spoon avoided

SCOTLAND avoided the RBS Six Nations wooden spoon with a comfortable win over Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Second-half tries from Nick De Luca and Nikki Walker gave the their first victory of the competition. “It means a lot, it’s been a really frustrating championship,” said second-row Richie Gray.

“We’ve played well in spells and not quite got a win so to get the win and get a few tries gives us something to cheer about.

“We wanted to put on a good performance today, an 80-minute performance and we did that.”

SCOTLAND: C Paterson, N Walker, J Ansbro, S Lamont, S Danielli, R Jackson, R Lawson; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, R Gray, A Kellock, N Hines, K Brown, J Barclay.

Replacements: N De Luca for Ansbro (19), D Parks for S Lamont (78), M Blair for R Lawson (64), S Lawson for Ford (64), E Murray for Cross (64), A Strokosch for Hines (54), R Vernon for Brown (74).

ITALY: A Masi, T Benvenuti, G Canale, A Sgarbi, M Bergamasco, K Burton, F Semenzato; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, C Del Fava, Q Geldenhuys, A Zanni, P Derbyshire, S Parisse.

Replacements: L McLean for Masi (32), P Canavosio for Sgarbi (69), L Orquera for Burton (59), A Lo Cicero for Perugini (59), C Festuccia for Ghiraldini (79), V Bernabo for Del Fava (54), R Barbieri for Derbyshire (59).

Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia).