Stuart Hogg has revealed referee Luke Pearce apologised to him for ruling out a try during Scotland’s win over Italy at Murrayfield. Pearce sought out the full-back after the match to say sorry for penalising Scotland for crossing on the halfway line as Hogg was in the process of scoring what should have been a remarkable solo try from his own half with just 10 minutes to go.

“To be fair to Luke Pearce, he came up after the game and apologised, said he made a mistake,” said Hogg. “These little things, if you were the referee you would maybe let it play out, then go back and check it. I was fairly happy with the way I finished it, even if it didn’t count. It was a little bit frustrating because that would have taken us to 40 points with a conversion, them on 10 or something – so it would have made the game dead and buried.

“It’s the fine margins, it hasn’t been given, so we move on. If he had let it play out, he could have gone back and looked at it through the TMO. But he apologised, he is man enough to admit his mistake. Fair play to him.”

Along with playmaker Finn Russell and man of the match Blair Kinghorn, whose three tries made him the first Scot to score a hat-trick in the championship since Iwan Tukalo in 1989, Hogg was one of the standout performers. Not only did he supply the try-scoring pass for Kinghorn’s second try and create Scotland’s fifth try for Chris Harris, he also scored Scotland’s third try when he touched down Russell’s grubber kick. That time, however, he got the benefit of the doubt from Pearce after the referee checked whether the Scot managed to get downward pressure on the ball.

“I got enough force on that ball, it was a wee bit lucky but we’ll take it,” he laughed. “I was very sure – I scored it and I knew I did, although when they showed the slow-mo on the big screen, I was getting a bit nervous …”

Luke Pearce apologised to Hogg after ruling out two of the Scotland full-back's tries on Saturday credit: AP

After beating an Italy side ravaged by sickness (coach Conor O’Shea said scrum-half Guglielmo Palazzani was vomiting for the duration of the flight from Italy to Edinburgh, and several other players were ill) Scotland now face Six Nations champions Ireland at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Scotland beat Ireland in the corresponding fixture two years ago, yet Scotland will still start as underdogs against a side who trail only the All Blacks in the world rankings.

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Despite the likelihood that key players such as Sean Maitland, Peter Horne, Fraser Brown and Jonny Gray will return to bolster a squad who were found to be lacking in depth as Italy ran in three late tries, Scotland will have to be at their best to compete with an Irish side smarting from their defeat.

Asked where Scotland would have to improve to beat the Irish, coach Gregor Townsend said: “Probably everywhere because Ireland will test us in every area. They have an excellent set-piece and they are the best team in the world in contact. They are the complete package, so we know we will have to be at our very best. We’ll take confidence from parts of our performance against Italy and from how we played against them in Dublin last year, but Ireland have improved since then, so we have to show we’ve also improved and are capable of taking our chances this time.”