Italy v ScotlandIn Italy's capital city, history lurks around every corner. This afternoon at Stadio Flaminio, Scotland are hoping to prevent the recent past repeating itself.
Four years ago Italy announced their arrival in the Six Nations with a stunning 34-20 victory over a Scotland side who had been the final champions of the Five Nations tournament 10 months earlier.
It was the shock of the new for the Scots, and their coach Matt Williams knows how they must have felt. The Australian has barely got his feet under the Murrayfield office table but all the talk is of being handed the wooden spoon, the probable fate of the losing side today.
After defeats by Wales and England, Scotland's supporters have travelled fearing the worst, and Williams is hardly fuelling expectations - even against a side who have also lost their opening two matches.
"The days of treating the Italians as easy-beats are well over," Williams said. "Scottish rugby is in serious trouble, and we are a long way behind because we haven't had the resources. When I took the job I realised it would be 12 months of difficult games.
"I said to them if they wanted me just to come in and win the next three games then they had the wrong guy - I wanted to be winning in 18 months' time."
Williams's afternoon will be made more uncomfortable by the absence of his loose-head prop Tom Smith and the flanker Cameron Mather.
Italy's strongest areas are the front row, where the lauded French trio were given a difficult time in Paris a fortnight ago, and the back row in which the flankers Aaron Persico and captain Andrea de Rossi were also outstanding.
ITALY: A Masi; G Canale, C Stoica, M Dallan, D Dallan; R de Marigny, P Griffen; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, M Bortolami, A de Rossi (capt), A Persico, S Parisse. Replacements: C Festuccia, S Perugini, C Checchinato, S Orlando, S Picone, R Wakarua, N Mazzucato.
SCOTLAND: B Hinshelwood; S Danielli, T Philip, B Laney, S Webster; C Paterson (capt), C Cusiter; A Jacobsen, G Bulloch, B Douglas, S Murray, S Grimes, J White, S Taylor, Hogg. Replacements: G Kerr, R Russell, N Hines, J Petrie, M Blair, A Henderson, D Lee.
Referee: N Whitehouse (Wales).
