Italy 13-34 Scotland: Gregor Townsend delight at opening win

Scotland scored five tries in Saturday's win over Italy

Gregor Townsend described himself as "very pleased" after recording victory over Italy in his first match in charge of Scotland.

The Scots won 34-13 in the Singapore heat and have Australia and Fiji still to play on their summer tour.

Ali Price and Tim Visser scored first-half tries and Ross Ford got two after the break before Damien Hoyland also crossed.

"To make the breakthrough at half-time gave us a big boost," said Townsend.

"We scored a couple of really good tries in the second half.

"As a coach, if you get a win and there's a few things to work on, you're very pleased.

"We knew it was going to be tough in the conditions, first time this team had played together but I was really pleased with the effort the guys put in throughout the game, especially defensively around the maul area, around the set piece, which is a bring strength of Italy's. We did that very well.

"It wasn't perfect. Sometimes how we wanted to attack, we saw that being transferred, other times we weren't there yet but I felt the guys kept working at it."

Ford doubled his tally of Scotland tries with his brace of scores.

"He had a little challenge the other day. Him and John Barclay had to commentate on tries that they had scored for Scotland and we had to dig quite deep in the history books to get Fordie's out - maybe that gave him a bit of good luck," Townsend told BBC Scotland.

"Really pleased he got his two tries and for Damien and Ali Price - first tries for Scotland, it's a special moment."

Ford said he "managed to pop up at the right times" and explained: "Five metres out seems to be my distance.

"We showed what we're about in this game."

And captain Barclay commented: "The intent from the boys was there. We're really happy with it."

The Scots' focus will now turn to Sydney and their meeting with the Wallabies, who beat Fiji 37-14 on Saturday.

"You don't get a tougher Test than playing in these conditions in training here this week and really pushing yourself to the limit and they came through very well," added Townsend.

"Obviously, there were some tired bodies - players that haven't played for a few months were pretty tired but they stuck in. This will be of huge benefit as we look to Australia and then Fiji.

"We watched Australia play today and they were outstanding. They're a quality side - World Cup finalists. They've always been floating around the top two, three, four in the world and they play really good, attacking rugby but they've also got an outstanding defence.

"It's a brilliant game for us to play in but we know we have to play close to our best to win that one."