Six Nations/Italy v Scotland: Italy coach Pierre Berbizier has told his players to keep their feet on the ground as they aim to seal their best Six Nations campaign with a win against Scotland at Rome's Stadio Flaminio tomorrow. The Azzurri go into the game full of confidence after they earned their first away point with an 18-18 draw against Wales last week.
It was the least they deserved after holding second-half leads in all of their matches so far. "It is fundamental that high expectations don't rush us into making mistakes because we are so eager to win," Berbizier said.
Berbizier has made three changes from the Wales team. Fullback Cristian Stoica, who came on as a second-half replacement, comes back into the starting 15 for try-scorer Ezio Galon. The other two changes are in the frontrow where first-choice hooker Fabio Ongaro has recovered from flu to reclaim his place and Martin Castrogiovanni replaces Carlos Nieto, who damaged knee ligaments against Wales. Maurizio Zaffiri continues to stand in for key flanker Mauro Bergamasco, who also missed the Wales match through injury.
The Scots still stand a chance of winning the tournament, albeit extremely slim. A victory in Rome and defeats for Ireland and France would leave four teams on six points, and it would then come down to score difference. Scotland coach Frank Hadden has opted to experiment with a new halfback partnership of Chris Cusiter and Gordon Ross. At hooker, Scott Lawson starts ahead of Doug Hall.
REPLACEMENTS
ITALY: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Rima Wakarua, 22 Ezio Galon.
SCOTLAND: 16 Doug Hall, 17 Craig Smith, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Jon Petrie, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Simon Webster.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)