Scotland lose opener to Italy in Under-20s Six Nations

Scotland's wretched run in the Under-20s Six Nations continued with 22-10 loss to Italy in Edinburgh.

With just one victory in the tournament since 2021, the Scots struck first at The Hive, with Billy Allen scoring from a maul.

However, the visitors were able to feed on errors and Federico Zanandrea profited from an interception to make sure Italy led 7-5 at the interval.

Italy scrum-half Niccolo Beni stretched that lead following an impressive surge from Jules Ducros.

Eduardo Todaro then sliced through two tackles to plunge under the posts.

Seb Stephen was held up on the line as Scotland applied some late pressure and fellow replacement Ollie Duncan crashed through soon after, selling a neat dummy pass on his way through from close range.

Any hopes of a home rally were extinguished when the conversion was missed and Italy knocked over a penalty in the closing moments.