Italy’s perseverance was rewarded as a last-gasp penalty try gave them a 22-19 win over Scotland for only their second away victory in the annual Six Nations.

Scotland looked like holding out in a messy battle of the tournament also-rans but Italy had other ideas as they emulated their 2007 victory, also at Murrayfield.

The Azzurri trailed throughout but their bulldozing pack ultimately proved too much for the error-strewn Scots who now sit bottom of the table after a fifth successive home defeat in the tournament.

With the hosts 19-15 ahead, thanks largely to the kicking of captain and scrumhalf Greig Laidlaw, Italy poured on the pressure after Scotland were penalised for collapsing a scrum.

With Italy captain Sergio Parisse roaring his troops forward near the line, Hamish Watson collapsed the maul and the match official had no hesitation in awarding the decisive try which Tommaso Allan converted to spark Italian celebrations.

Italy, who have had the dubious honour of the “wooden spoon” for finishing bottom 10 times in 15 editions of the Six Nations, now look set to finish above Scotland who end up with matches against title-chasing Ireland and England.

“It’s fantastic for the team to win at the end. It’s been very hard on the team in recent years as we lost from a last-minute drop goal in Rome last time out,” Parisse told the BBC.

“The forwards did a tremendous job at the end there.”

For Scotland, the optimism of two narrow defeats by France and Wales, evaporated on an afternoon in which they raced into a 10-0 lead in the opening minutes.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the performance. Unfortunately in the end it’s cost us – our indiscipline, but it wasn’t just that, it was the whole performance,” said Laidlaw, who kicked 14 of his side’s points.

“There was way too much poor stuff in between the good things we did.”

Other result: France vs Wales 13-20.