Scotland hand Vern Cotter perfect send-off after blanking Italy 29-0

Scotland 29-0 Italy, Murrayfield Stadium
Scorecard

A four-try performance from Scotland saw them give a fitting tribute to their head coach Vern Cotter with a 29-0 victory over Italy in their Six Nations encounter at Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday.

Fullback Stuart Hogg got Scotland off the mark with a fourth minute penalty but the home side's indiscipline almost costed them the game as they conceded five penalties in the first quarter which Italy failed to capitalise on.

Fly-half Finn Russell made count an offload from scrum-half Ali Price to go past the line in the 27th minute to increase the lead to 10-0. Price had a gentle kick over the top which was held by Hogg and the fullback fed replacement Matt Scott as he danced past the post at the stroke of half-time during which the score was 15-0 in favour of the Dark Blues.

Italy showed a lot of resilience in the second half unlike their performances earlier in the tournament. They were gifted away penalties by Scotland, who lost their skipper John Barclay temporarily when he was sin-binned in the 48th minute as well.

Italy's desperate effort were undone by strong Scotland defence and soon Tom Visser made use of a kick by Hogg to score the third try for Cotter's men following which Tommy Seymour secured the bonus point with his touchdown in the 72nd minute to seal a 29 point win for Scotland.