For most non-Scots hope springs eternal that this afternoon Italy can repeat that astonishing victory over Scotland, 34-10, in 2000. A fortnight ago Italy seemed concerned only with keeping the score down in France, a cynical display which also saw four of their players sent to the sin-bin. Losing matches is one thing, losing friends another.
Italy's scrumhalf Alessandro Troncon says: "We know we have a great opportunity against Scotland to wipe out all the criticism we had after the Paris game." He may have added Italy also have a chance of winning. They might not have created much in the way of scoring opportunities against France but neither did the Scots against England.
To help rectify this Ian McGeechan, the Scotland coach, has restored Gregor Townsend to his favoured outhalf role. Duncan Hodge is dropped to the bench and there is a first start, at centre, for Glasgow's Andrew Henderson.
Italy coach Brad Johnstone, with the former All Black John Kirwan as his assistant and another New Zealander, Mark Graham, working on defence, knows the Italians can be competitive at the scrum. Surprisingly he has dropped Andrea lo Cicero to the bench while Federico Pucciariello comes in at loosehead.
REPLACEMENTS: Italy: A Moreno (Worcester), A Lo Cicero (Toulouse), M Giacheri (Sale), A Persico (Viadana), J-M Queirolo (Dax), R Pez (Rotherham), L Martin (Northampton). Scotland: G Graham (Newcastle), R Russell (Saracens), M Leslie (Edinburgh), J Petrie (Glasgow), G Beveridge (Glasgow), D Hodge (Edinburgh), K Logan (Wasps).
Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand).
