Six Nations 2022: Italy 22-33 Scotland - visitors bounce back with disjointed win

Scotland recovered from successive Six Nations defeats by overcoming Italy with a disjointed bonus-point victory in Rome.

The visitors rallied from a sluggish start to open a nine-point half-time lead with two Chris Harris tries — either side of Callum Braley's Italy counter — after Sam Johnson crossed.

Darcy Graham and Stuart Hogg extended the advantage, but Scotland's defending was lax in an untidy performance and Ange Capuozzo provided home consolation by scoring twice in the closing stages.

Scotland's second win in four matches moves them up to fourth in the standings, while Italy remain bottom after a 36th consecutive Six Nations defeat.

Gregor Townsend's men complete their campaign against Ireland in Dublin next Saturday, while Italy are away to Wales.

Both of these teams came into this feeling sore about their plight; Italy because of their mammoth seven-year run without a win — when oh when will their torment end? — and Scotland because of a championship that promised much in the wake of their victory over England on the opening day but has fizzled out since.

Nobody could have mistaken this for a high-class Test between two of the tournament's heavies, but it was frenetic and fun. Madcap at times.

The bad news for Italy is that this is another defeat to pile on top of all the others. The good news is Italy never caved in, finished on the front foot, scored a try in that period and might have had more. There were positives for them.

Scotland scored a handful of tries without ever suggesting they have now hit on something that might trouble Ireland in the final game of the championship.

They did some lovely things, but did some other things that allowed Italy to score more points than they had managed in their previous