Mallett insists his side have learned lessons but remain underdogs

NICK Mallett believes Scotland will face a much more disciplined Italian side in this afternoon's Murrayfield Test match, but insisted that Scotland still had the better team.

Italy come into the game on the back of defeats to England (36-11) and Ireland (38-9), but with a similar story to that of Scotland of indiscipline and individual errors handing their opponents swings of momentum if not outright victory. However, like Frank Hadden and his management, Mallet spoke confidently yesterday of having tackled those issues in heated sessions within the camp this week.

Mallett said: "We're very disappointed with both of our performances so far. Against England the selection of Mauro Bergamasco (the flanker played scrum-half] was a mitigating factor in how we played, and I take responsibility for that selection.

"We made four really silly mistakes and conceded four tries off them, and against Ireland three out of the five tries conceded were from our mistakes, so clearly, going into this game against Scotland we need to improve our discipline and our ability to hold onto the ball without conceding tries.

"Last year we were the least penalised team in the whole of the Six Nations and against England only gave away seven penalties, so we look at the last game as a game apart. I think the referee was influenced by the high tackle in the first 30 minutes and got very nervous about the game maybe degenerating and so penalised Ireland and us a lot in that game.

"The team has gone through a very tough video session and each player has been made aware of the importance of being disciplined on the field. We lost the game to Ireland quite simply because of our mistakes and absolutely ridiculous discipline."

Mallett was complimentary towards Scotland on the eve of this game and insisted it was ridiculous that Hadden was under pressure, insisting that he had made real improvements on Matt Williams, his predecessor.

He clearly feels they share similar problems, and spoke of how vital it was to Italy's future that two teams are admitted to the Magners League, as will be discussed next month. "Anyone who has a rugby brain should realise that Italian rugby players need to play at a higher level, regularly, to be more competitive when it comes to international rugby," he said.

He insisted that Hadden had more talent at his disposal, however. He said: "I think Scotland have played some great rugby in their games – they finished strongly against Wales and played good rugby in Paris – so their games have been much better than ours really even though we're both still to get our first win.

"But the issue of Scotland and Italy is always the same. They have the fewest players to pick from and we have the fewest players to pick from, and like Scotland did last year with England if we can manage to beat Scotland again then it will be a fantastic achievement.

"I've been lucky to have coached South Africa and won 17 in a row and I'm now coach with Italy and lost six games in a row, but it's very different roles. I'm getting used to it now and it's pretty normal that Scotland and Italy are battling, in terms of player strength, to be more competitive at this level.

"But if you look at the way the Scottish teams have played in the Heineken Cup, Scotland have got better players at the moment. Glasgow beat Toulouse away which was a fantastic result and Edinburgh have played some very good rugby, while the Italian sides have been awful in the Heineken Cup.

"Scotland have also been around the Six Nations for a hell of a lot longer than Italy. Italy have had five wins (four against Scotland] and a draw in the Six Nations and Scotland have had a hell of a lot more than that, so we'd be arrogant to say we were at the same level as Scotland, but they are the one team that over the last three years Italy have managed to be very competitive against."

The Italians have impressive forwards, most notably skipper Sergio Parisse, Marco Bortolami, Bergamasco and Martin Castrogiovanni, which will make the forward battle immense, but lack the same experience and high-quality skills in the backs to finish.

Mallett has brought back fly-half Andrea Marcato at full-back in place of the suspended Andrea Masi, with Luke McLean, a regular full-back, starting at stand-off.

Fit-again hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini returns to the side and Gonzalo Garcia replaces Kaine Robertson who is left out of the squad.

The uncapped Franco Sbaraglini has been called up to replace Saracens hooker Fabio Ongaro, who injured himself in training yesterday.

Mallet added that if his Italian side could stamp out the individuals errors then today's clash would be as tight as previous meetings. "Scotland managed to win in 2007, they lost in the World Cup 18-16 and we managed to win it with a drop last year, so it's been very close and tight, and I'd like to think we can be as competitive as that again tomorrow," he added. "If we don't make the same mistakes as in the first two games then we'll certainly be much more competitive."