Peerless goalkicker Chris Paterson sent Scotland into the World Cup quarterfinals again when he landed six penalties to secure an 18-16 victory over Italy in a nervy, rain-affected Pool C showdown on Saturday.
Paterson, who had landed nine out of nine conversions in Scotland’s first three games, continued his perfect return with six out of six penalties in St Etienne.
It proved just enough against an Italian team who scored the only try of the match but will rue a catalogue of errors that ensured their long wait for a first quarterfinal appearance goes on.
Scotland finished runners-up to New Zealand and will play either France, Argentina or Ireland in Paris in the last eight while Italy, who had high hopes after beating the Scots in Edinburgh in the Six Nations this year, go home.
”We are extremely proud of our record of being only one of five teams to make every quarterfinal, but it was touch and go tonight,” coach Frank Hadden told ITV television.
After the breathless excitement of the Wales vs Fiji game earlier in the day, this encounter was a much tighter affair as wet, slippery conditions encouraged a more conservative approach.
Scotland moved into an early 6-0 lead with two Paterson penalties but Italy then enjoyed a period of dominance and scored 10 unanswered points despite being reduced to 14 men when Mauro Bergamasco was sin-binned for killing the ball.
A soaring Ramiro Pez up-and-under caused chaos in the Scottish ranks and Alessandro Troncon, captaining the side in the absence of the injured Marco Bortolami, scampered through for a try on his 101st appearance.
David Bortolussi converted and then slotted a penalty for a 10-6 lead.
Italy though lost their way and their discipline and Mirco Bergamasco escaped punishment, but can certainly expect a citing, after tripping flyhalf Dan Parks.
They had picked the wrong team to offend against too as Paterson, switched to the wing for this match, nailed four more penalties either side of halftime to turn the deficit into an 18-10 lead.
The Italians, though, fought back tenaciously and Bortolussi, who had missed two earlier attempts, was accurate with two more to make it 18-16 to set up a testing final 20 minutes.
As the clock ticked down neither team risked anything but Bortolussi had the chance to become the hero with a long-range penalty attempt four minutes from time, but fell short.
Hadden’s policy of resting almost all his first team against New Zealand last week, criticised in some areas, paid dividends as the Scots remained strong to the end.
”Once the rain came down we knew it was going to be tough up front and I’m so pleased with the forwards. No longer are we going to be bullied up front,” Hadden said.
”We know how good the Italian pack is and the fact that we matched them and ultimately held our nerve is a tribute to the progress we’ve made.
”We knew our defence would hold out, there was never any danger of that, it was just a question of making the right decisions.
”We are absolutely delighted to get another opportunity to show the progress we have made and now we have got this out of the way we can relax and show the sort of rugby we are capable of.”
Paterson added: ”The conditions played a part tonight but we said at halftime we were in a position to win the game.
”But we are not finished yet, we’ve got a game next week.” – Reuters