Jones hat-trick inspires Scotland to overcome Italy scare in Six Nations opener

The hosts had opened in fine style, finding themselves 14-0 and then 19-6 ahead thanks to tries from Rory Darge, Huw Jones and Ben White, but the Azzurri hit back.

Tommaso Allan responded with two penalties before another brace of three-pointers reduced the arrears to seven. When Juan Ignacio Brex intercepted Finn Russell's pass to level the scores, the majority of Murrayfield was concern, but Darcy Graham and Jones rescued the Scots.

Graham was the spark for both of the centre's second-half tries as Scotland saw off a spirited showing from the Italians.

The Scots went into the 2025 Six Nations with hopes once again high that they could end their long wait for a title and their start showed why.

Gregor Townsend's men dominated possession and territory against an Italian outfit that were slow out of the blocks. Co-captain Darge took advantage of their opponents' slack opening, starting and finishing a try which moved them into an early 7-0 advantage.

The flanker, who was utterly sublime in the first half, turned over the ball on the halfway line before the play was shifted wide for Duhan van der Merwe to storm down the left-hand side.

Under pressure, Italy infringed and, instead of going for the posts, the hosts went for the jugular and it paid off as Darge barrelled over from close range.

Scotland then built on that early score and once again Van der Merwe was heavily involved as he surged down the wing and passed inside for Jones to finish.

It had been a dreadful start for an Azzurri team who themselves had big ambitions coming into the tournament. Their lineout was malfunctioning while they simply failed to hold onto the ball for any significant length of time, but they finally began to edge back into the contest.

The scrum had the better of the Scottish front-row and the home side also started to make a few more errors, handing Allan a couple of penalty opportunities which the full-back kicked to reduce the arrears.

All the threat was coming from Scotland, however, and a third try was soon forthcoming as Dave Cherry's brilliant off-load enabled White to touch down.

Only discipline was really letting Townsend's outfit down and a third infringement inside their own half enabled Allan to make it a 10-point buffer.

But it was becoming a real issue and, after a fourth three-pointer got Italy to within a converted try on the scoreboard, the pressure increased on the Scots.

It evidently told on Russell, who forced a pass in midfield, and Brex was on hand to intercept and cross the whitewash unopposed to level matters. The match had turned on its head and a revitalised Italy were hassling the Scots into mistakes.

The hosts needed something special to re-established control of proceedings and it came via the magnificent Graham. The flyer received the ball on the right-hand wing, cut inside and sped away before Jones was on hand to collect and score.

Graham was also involved in their fifth score as he took the ball off the shoulder of Russell to take them deep into Italian territory. Under pressure, the visitors duly ceded when Jones crossed the whitewash for his hat-trick.

Those tries gave Scotland enough of a buffer to see out the rest of the game, despite a late surge from Italy which saw them create a number of chances. However, their profligacy meant that they came away from Edinburgh with nothing to show for their efforts.

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