Blair Kinghorn scored three tries as Scotland rounded off their Six Nations campaign with a 26-14 bonus-point win over Italy to all but seal third place in this year's championship.
Gregor Townsend's side had lost successive games to France and Ireland, having opened up with back-to-back wins for the first time, but they ended their tournament on a high.
Duhan van der Merwe and Kinghorn crossed over in the first half, though Scotland's advantage stood at just six points at the interval as Tommaso Allan twice kicked over.
Kinghorn marked his return to the side with another try early in the second half and, while Allan did reduce the deficit to five points, Kinghorn's late third snatched a bonus point.
Van der Merwe brilliantly grounded the ball in the left corner mid-leap to get Scotland off the mark, but a couple of Allan penalties either side ensured Italy had the lead.
Marco Riccioni was shown a yellow card after another collapsed scrum and that proved a big moment as Kinghorn crashed over a minute later and this time converted.
Despite some last-ditch defending, Ben White was able to spin the ball to Kinghorn to stretch over in the 43rd minute for another converted try as Scotland moved well in front.
However, Allan collected Paolo Garbisi's grubber to open Italy's try count and, having missed the conversion, found the sticks from a penalty to bring Scotland within five points.
That set up a gripping conclusion, but Italy's hopes of snatching a second win in 42 Six Nations games ended when Van der Merwe played in star man Kinghorn on the counter.
Scotland get the job done
Despite what the scoreline may suggest, this was a far from vintage performance from Scotland and it could so easily have been Italy who came away with the victory.
Townsend's side ultimately came out on top, though, with this their eighth successive Six Nations win against Italy, who finish with the wooden spoon for an eighth time running.
Scotland now look certain to finish third for the first time since 2018, bar an improbable big margin of victory for England in their showdown with Grand Slam-chasing Ireland later on Saturday.
Kinghorn does it again
This was the first game Scotland had started without either Finn Russell or Stuart Hogg in their side since the opening game of the 2012 edition.
Ollie Smith and Kinghorn were brought in, and boy did the latter make the most of the chance, with his hat-trick taking him level with team-mate Huw Jones at the top of the tournament try chart.
It is the second time Kinghorn has scored two or more tries in a single game for Scotland, the other occasion also coming against Italy on the opening day of the 2019 tournament when also scoring a hat-trick.
Champions League success does not define Bayern move, says Kane
Harry Kane refuted suggestions Champions League glory this season will decide the success of his Bayern Munich move, after Tuesday's 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg.
Kane scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-1 to Bayern early in the second half, just four minutes after Leroy Sane had levelled with a thunderous finish at Allianz Arena.
Having finished with his usual ease from 12 yards, Kane became the first English player to be directly involved in 11 goals in a single Champions League campaign.
Kane is the joint-top scorer across Europe's big five leagues in all competitions this season (43 – level with Kylian Mbappe), while the England captain now has the most combined goals and assists of any player (54 – 43 goals and 11 assists).
Regardless of whether Bayern can overcome Madrid in the second leg next week and go all the way in the final, Kane insists his move to Germany is a long-term mission, rather than a one-year aim for success.
When asked on TNT Sports if winning the Champions League would define his Bayern move as a success, Kane responded: "I don't think so.
"I'm here for many years, it's not just a one-off year that I've come for. Of course, the expectation at the start of the year was to win trophies and it hasn't gone our way in the Bundesliga or the cup, but the Champions League is the biggest one of them all.
"If we can somehow get our hands on that one, it'll be an amazing season, but there is a long way to go.
"These are the big games under the lights [that I'm here for]. The atmosphere was incredible. I'm sure at the Bernabeu it'll be the same. It's exactly why I’ve come, I wanted to play in these big games, these big moments, and it's no bigger than next week.
"It'll be tough, we know their history in the competition, but we can take a lot of positives from today. There's a couple of small details that we need to get right because we can get punished in a couple of quick moments, but we can take a lot from this game."
Kane now has 401 goals for club and country, having moved past the quadruple-century mark with his double against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Including his well-taken penalty against Madrid, the former Tottenham striker now has a personal-best 43 goals in all competitions this season as well.
Yet his focus remains solely on the next game, with Stuttgart to come on Saturday before the return visit to Madrid.
"It's been a good season [personally] so far, but it's always about the next game, the next big game, and it's next week, away from home against Real Madrid," he added.
"Everything we're fighting for this year is in this competition, so we've got to find a way to get it done. It's going to be tough, the Bernabeu, Real Madrid in the Champions League, but we go there with full belief, it's 0-0 and we go there for the win."
Kane's second-half strike on Tuesday came after Sane had cancelled out an opener from Vinicius Junior, whose late penalty then ensured the shares were spoiled at Allianz Arena.
With the pressure on Bayern's spot-kick, Madrid's Jude Bellingham appeared to offer Kane a few words of advice – though the Bayern striker was in his own space preparing to face Andriy Lunin.
"I don't know what he was saying," Kane added on his England team-mate's quiet word. "I saw him there, mumbling something, but I'll have to ask him what he said.
"Once I'm in that zone I'm just trying to block everything out – I'm sure he was saying something to try and put me off. Thankfully it didn't do anything."
Coventry City 1-2 Ipswich Town: Burgess puts Tractor Boys on brink of promotion
Ipswich Town took a huge step to Premier League promotion after Cameron Burgess snatched a second-half winner in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Coventry City.
Kieran McKenna's side require just one point from their final Championship game against League One-bound Huddersfield Town to go up, after a decisive victory at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Kieffer Moore blasted in an eighth-minute opener for the visitors after Wes Burns' crafty cutback pass, easing the pressure on Ipswich and dampening the top-two hopes of third-placed Leeds United.
Haji Wright levelled in the second half, only for Burgess to squeeze a winning goal past Bradley Collins five minutes later, putting Ipswich on the brink of top-flight football for the first time since their relegation in 2002.
A draw against Huddersfield, who are 23rd and three points adrift of safety, would secure promotion at Portman Road, marking just the fourth instance of back-to-back promotions in the Premier League era.
Having managed to climb out of League One, McKenna's entertaining side would join Watford, rivals Norwich City and Southampton as the only sides to achieve the feat.
Data Debrief: Ipswich end winless run at perfect time
Prior to this game, only five teams had won fewer points in the Championship than Ipswich's six since the beginning of April (W1 D3 L1).
Yet McKenna's men refused to let their top-flight push derail as the Tractor Boys ended a four-game winless run to move within touching distance of history.
Bayern Munich 2-2 Real Madrid: Vinicius' late leveller sets up winner-takes-all showdown
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior scored twice, including an 83rd-minute penalty, to snatch a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich in an entertaining Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday.
The Brazilian struck against the run of play when he slotted in to give the visitors the lead from Toni Kroos' defence-splitting pass after 24 minutes at Allianz Arena.
Bayern struck twice in four second-half minutes to turn the game around, with Leroy Sane threading home a powerful shot in the 53rd minute and Harry Kane edging his side ahead with a penalty soon after.
Madrid, however, earned a spot-kick of their own when Rodrygo was brought down and Vinicius coolly converted it to equalise, leaving this tie wide open ahead of next week's return leg.
Facing each other for a record eighth time at this stage of the competition, it was Bayern who started well, racking up half a dozen attempts on goal by the 15th minute with Sane and Kane coming close.
Madrid needed only one chance to score though, stunning the home crowd when Kroos sliced open the Bayern defence with a through ball and Vinicius chased it down to beat Manuel Neuer.
Kroos almost added another himself in the 51st minute but his curled shot was palmed wide by Neuer. Instead, it was Bayern who scored two minutes later with a solo effort and shot from Sane for a deserved equaliser.
Their comeback was complete in the just four minutes later when Jamal Musiala was brought down by Lucas Vazquez and Kane sent Andriy Lunin the wrong way to put the home side ahead.
Madrid, chasing a 15th European Cup, levelled in the 83rd minute with Vinicius' penalty to set up a mouth-watering return leg in Madrid next week.
The winners will face either Borussia Dortmund or Paris Saint-Germain, who meet in the second semi-final on Wednesday.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
