Scotland pay price for harrowing first half in Parma as Six Nations reality bites

Missing captain Rachel Malcolm through injury, Scotland conceded five tries during a harrowing opening 40 minutes to trail 29-0 at the break and leave their hopes of climbing to third in the table in tatters.

The visitors, now fifth, salvaged some pride during the second half through tries from stand-in skipper Lana Skeldon and Molly Poolman, but head coach Sione Fukofuka was left to rue another tough afternoon following last weekend’s 84-7 humbling by England.

He said: “We didn’t get purchase early and momentum swung really quickly. We have to learn as a team that when momentum swings, we reset, go again and stick to the areas we want to target. We went a little bit away from that at times which allowed Italy to put some pressure on us.

“They got a few turnovers early, which we were pretty disappointed about. We just weren’t as active as we wanted to be.”

The hosts were quickest out the blocks at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi and set the tone for what was to follow when Alyssa D'Incà scored neatly in the corner in the seventh minute after a fine initial break from Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi.

A devastating driving maul allowed the hosts to double their lead on 15 minutes through Vittoria Zanette, who crashed over from close range, but Scotland worked themselves into a strong position just before the half-hour mark.

But having reached within five metres of Italy’s try line, Scotland lost possession through a turnover and then allowed Italy in for a third time.

After Sofia Stefan’s clearing kick, the scrum-half combined exquisitely with Veronica Madia and D'Incà down the right flank as a series of fluid passes took Italy close to Scotland’s line.

From there, Zanette did the rest, before D'Incà joined the prop in completing a double five minutes later after being found by a brilliant pass from Madia to secure Italy’s bonus point.

Fly-half Madia was at it again a minute before the break as her no-look pass meant Aura Muzzo barely had to break stride on her way to scampering under the posts.

The one-way traffic continued into the second 40 minutes as hooker Vittoria Vecchini bulldozed home in the 44th minute after Scotland were rocked by head injuries to Rachel McLachlan and Alex Stewart.

Italy were reduced to 13 players as Madia and Elisa Giordano were both sent to the sin-bin, and it was from the penalty awarded for the latter’s offence that Scotland finally got themselves on the board, Skeldon dotting down before Helen Nelson added the extras with a great conversion from a tight angle.

Still down by two players, Italy responded expertly through Giordana Duca’s try on the hour, but Scotland continued to fight and were rewarded through Poolman, who threw a brilliant dummy and sprinted under the posts.

A third try nearly followed but Skeldon was adjudged to have been held up late on following Sara Mannini’s yellow card.

“It is a bit of a challenge when we don’t have our topline senior players but the reality is a lot of teams are facing that,” Fukofuka added.

“For us now, it’s about resetting, getting bodies right and getting really good prep in before France.”