Scotland suffered defeat yet again in the U20 Six Nations as a miserable second half led to them losing 47-14 in Italy.

Kenny Murray’s side led 14-7 at half time but they didn’t add any scores in the second half and conceded 40 points to the home side and it resulted in yet another evening of frustration for the young Scots.

Italy dominated the opening eight minutes and got the first try of the match through Pierro Gritti who got in under the posts and it was a simple conversion to make it 7-0.

Scotland responded well though and they were on the scoresheet themselves when Hector Patterson shut down an attempted clearance from Mattia Jimenez and Euan McVie got over the line before Isaac Coates added the extras with an excellent kick.

And Scotland then added a second try with some brilliant play from Findlay Thomson to open up space for Fergus Watson and he took full advantage of it by getting across the line before Coates produced a second brilliant kick to make it 14-7 to the visitors and they looked a completely different side to some of the games earlier in the championship.

The second half started the same way as the first half, bizarrely, and Italy got themselves level with Gritti getting on the scoresheet again and it was a bit too easy for him as he found the space to get over the line.

It was a frustrating moment for Scotland after a first half where they were the better side and there was a lengthy TMO review for potential offside but it wasn’t obvious to the referee and the try stood.

And Italy put themselves in front soon after Nicholas Gasperini forced himself over the line for their third try of the evening with Piccuriello adding the extras once again. And then the Italy hooker got his side’s bonus point to put Italy two scores in front with 20 minutes to go.

A fifth try them came the way of Italy full back Mirko Belloni as he cruised through a Scotland team which had fallen apart in the second half and at this stage there were serious worries for just how many points the home side could put on the board.

And they got another try with just a few minutes left on the clock when a superb cross field kick found Marco Scalabrin to touch down. It didn’t get any better for Scotland as Luke Coulston was shown a yellow card and they finished the game with 14 men.

And there was even time for another one as Patrick de Villiers added a final try when the clock was in the red.

Italy: M Belloni (G Milano 64), M Scalabrin, F Fusari, N Bozzo (P De Villiers 72), F Imberti (F Bini 66), M Pucciariello, M Jimenez (L Casilio 52), S Pelliccioli (F Pisani 50), N Gasperini (V Padoan 64), D Ascari (M Gallorini 50), M Midena, P Gritti, C Zucconi, L Bellucci (R Paganin 68), J Botturi

Try: Gritti (7, 51), Gasperini (56, 60), Belloni (63), Scalabrin (77), De Villiers (80)

Conversions: Pucciariello (8, 51, 56, 61, 77, )

Scotland: J Hocking, F Doyle, G Gwynn, F Thomson, F Watson (J Ventisei, 40), I Coates (M Urwin 57), H Patterson (M Lock, 52), R Deans (C Smyth 57), J Blyth-Lafferty (G Parry 66), C Norrie (R Whitefield 66), E McVie, R Burke, R Hart (L Coulston 64), F Douglas, T Currie (J Morris 64)

Try: McVie (18), Watson (26)

Conversions: Coates (18, 26)