Italy's victory marked only their second Six Nations triumph on the road © Getty Images

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Italy full-back Luke McLean felt credit should go to the forwards as a late penalty try ensured they finished on the right end of a 22-19 victory in the Six Nations clash at Murrayfield.

Mark Bennett's intercept try and 11 points from skipper Greig Laidlaw's boot looked to have put the hosts in command early on, but scores from Joshua Furno and Giovanbattista Venditti, plus five points from kicker Kelly Haimona, allowed the Italians back into the contest just before the break.

Laidlaw added another penalty after the restart, but his side could not hold off a late surge from the Azzurri and left referee George Clancy with no option but to hand the Italians a last-gasp penalty try, converted by Tommy Allan.

Having been pipped by Scotland in their last two Six Nations contests, McLean was relieved to see things finally turn out in the Azzurri's favour.

Vittoria! #SCOvITA #6Nazioni pic.twitter.com/AC8uq3j3LS

— Italrugby (@Federugby) February 28, 2015

He told BBC One: "It's been a long couple of years with Italy. We've had a couple of tough losses against Scotland in the last two years so it was good to be on the other side of the result.

"Our forwards really set the platform today. We scored a try off a really good maul at the start of the first half and, full credit to them, they came out today and really stood up for us.

"To win is tough enough, to win away is a good thing and now we look forward to the next two games. Luckily enough we have two games at home so we'll try and push on from there."

Italy captain Sergio Parisse was unable to mask his delight at the win. "I'm really happy with the result," he said. "It was fantastic for the team to win in the end.

"We lost last time out in Rome to a late drop goal so we are really happy with the result and I'm really happy for the team. It's going to give us some confidence for the next games."

Defeat has left Scotland facing their fourth wooden spoon in 11 years, and Laidlaw admitted they paid the price for poor defence.

"We're disappointed with the performance," he said. "We let Italy into the game right at the end and it cost us. But it wasn't just down to that, it was the whole performance.

"It was all ups and downs. We had some good stuff but there was way too much poor stuff in between. Defensively we weren't on it today and that aspect was too soft in the first half. We'd talked about discipline all week but we just let them chip away at our lead."