Five wins in a row. In Florence, of all places, Scotland have developed their latest renaissance, stretching a string of victories further than they have since 2011. It would be misleading to claim this as evidence of anything more than a pleasing run of form. They did not play particularly well, but found the way to victory. All good teams need that knack before they can contemplate the next level of status. They claimed the bonus point, too. Duhan van der Merwe started the try-scoring and looked a handful throughout, but all four tries owed to a policy of sending penalties to the corner. Hardly inspirational, but effective – and part of a match that held the interest throughout. Italy took some beating. One should hesitate to jump to conclusions about any player or team based on these friendlies, whatever the latest tournament by which they try to lend them an air of significance. Italy’s latest outings in the Six Nations suggested not a lot had changed: they were stroppy and difficult to break down, occasionally brilliant, but ultimately – as usual – overpowered by the big beasts of England and Ireland. A cynic might say plus ça change here, too, but they tore into Scotland, who, for all their own well-known shortcomings, are one of the form teams in Europe. The Italy scrum – which looked wobbly against England – had their opponents back-pedalling early on. As if by way of explanation, Rory Sutherland hobbled off in the first quarter, joining Jamie Ritchie, who had already departed with a knock to the head. Thus Scotland had disruption in personnel to contend with, as well. Italy, for whom the loss of Jake Polledri in the second half was of grave concern, held a well-deserved lead at the break. They have high hopes for Paolo Garbisi, the latest to offer an answer at No 10. We know he is a dazzling runner, but he showed fine accuracy with his left boot, both off tee and out of hand. Then they scored one of the tries of the season. Another promising youngster, the bruising Marco Zanon, broke past Duncan Weir. Marcello Violi and Mattia Bellini played key supporting roles and the latter released Matteo Minozzi for the corner. All the more encouraging was the way it came as a direct response to Scotland’s first points. They had not been able to secure a foothold in the game, but just past the 20-minute mark they scored the game’s first try, with Van der Merwe picking a wonderful line after a second penalty kicked to the corner. Scotland’s discipline was quite a problem. In the first half they conceded twice the penalties Italy did and Garbisi was happy to take advantage of each one. On it went in the second half, another infringement at a lineout empowering Garbisi to stretch Italy’s lead to 14-7. Scotland forced their way back in under bizarre circumstances. Or rather they were allowed to stroll back in: an off-load by Hamish Watson was batted back by Polledri, everyone stopped, and Zander Fagerson wandered the five yards to the line with a disbelieving smile on his face. Garbisi restored Italy’s lead on the hour with his fourth penalty, but Scotland’s policy of kicking penalties to the corner paid off again in the 67th minute, with George Turner enjoying himself off the bench. From the maul, Turner burst away and a couple of phases later Scott Cummings picked the telling line to send Scotland into a lead they would not relinquish. Turner then turned try-scorer late in the game, finishing another driven lineout and securing Scotland that bonus point.