Scotland helped new coach Gregor Townsend get off to a perfect start by easing to a comprehensive 34-13 victory over an inexperienced Italy side in the first test of their June tour in Singapore.
The Scots made light of losing three experienced players to British and Irish Lions duty with hooker Ross Ford leading the way with a brace of tries after the break as Singapore hosted a top-tier Test match for the first time.
“It was very humid but we thought it was going to be worse. Happy to play some good rugby in tough conditions,” Scotland captain John Barclay said.
“We scored some good tries, let in a couple, but we’re pleased as it was our first outing in a few weeks.”
Scotland made good on a pre-match promise of a fast start and forced the Italians into desperate defending in the first five minutes through quick and expansive passing as they probed for an opening.
Their ambition was soon rewarded when five-eighth Finn Russell slotted over a penalty to open the scoring but Italy pegged them back almost immediately when Tommaso Allan kicked from long range after the Scots had infringed at a ruck.
Scotland were dominating possession but unable to capitalise on good field position due to poor offloads and a lack of discipline, while Italy were content to soak up the pressure and look to trouble their opponents on the counter-attack.
Italy continued to give away penalties but Scotland persisted with opting for attacking set-pieces and a couple of moments of brilliance in the final two minutes of the half enabled Townsend’s men to pull clear.
Halfback Ali Price scored the first try when he fooled the defence with a dummied pass and dived over in the corner before winger Tim Visser hauled down an exquisite chip-kick and stretched to touch down as he fell to the ground.
Fullback Duncan Taylor added the conversion for a 15-3 halftime lead and Scotland stormed out of the blocks after the break, immediately tallying another seven points when Ford burrowed over from a driving maul and Russell added the extras.
Italy were looking ragged and after debut lock Dean Budd was sin-binned for persistent infringements, hooker Ford added his second try after a well-worked passing move as Scotland ran away with what had rapidly transformed into a one-sided contest.
Elsewhere, Japan beat Romania 33-21.
Romania had an early 6-0 lead with two long-range penalties from Florin Vlaicu.
But Japan took control when Akihito Yamada sprinted over from 30 meters in the 12th minute and Kenki Fukuoka added another try 10 minutes later.
Jumpei Ogura converted both tries and added a penalty as the hosts took a comfortable 23-9 lead at halftime.
“The game played out as we expected,” Japan coach Jamie Joseph said. “On one side of the ledger you had big guys playing a set-piece-orientated game that put us under pressure. We were able to play our style and fortunately we came out on top.”