Parisse will need to be shackled

Having missed last year’s fixture due to a knee injury, heavyweight No. 8 Sergio Parisse – who weighs in at 17st 8lb – will be back adding to a haul of 76 caps on the pitch where, unusually for a forward, he once landed a drop goal in a Test match.

Such abilities on the part of the Argentinian-born ace, who plays his club rugby in Paris with Stade Francais, have not gone unnoticed in the Scottish camp. And, fresh from devising a plan which effectively contained the free flowing England back three in last weekend’s Calcutta Cup defeat, defence coach Graham Steadman now acknowledges turning his primary attentions up front.

Says Steadman: “We see Parisse as being the Italian talisman and without question he is a quality player. We will be paying special attention to him – what he can create when given possession.

“He’s a world class player and let’s not forget that, coming off the back of a win, the whole Italian team will be dangerous and travelling with a lot of confidence.”

By contrast Steadman doesn’t feel the need to lift his side having come within a single score of an England team who posted their lowest total in the London leg of the fixture for 20 years even though some critics have suggested Scotland may have been left deflated by coming near, yet not near enough.

“I think the players are proud Scotsmen who want to finish this competition on a winning note. They know what’s required to get that and it is nothing but their best,” added Steadman.

On the subject of ‘best’ nobody scaled greater heights, admittedly on a day of collective glorious failure, than full back Chris Paterson who, Steadman revealed, has been putting in extra shifts on his defensive effort since being recalled two matches ago.

Highlight of the Paterson display was a crossfield cover tackle to sink opposite number Ben Foden a yard out from the try-line that was just reward for effort put in.

Revealed Steadman: “Chris and I have done extras working on his last line of defence where you can’t afford to miss (a tackle). He finished a massive threat by Foden and everybody – certainly the betting shop pundits – would have backed Foden to score.

“Credit Chris who, despite having 103 caps and being a role model in every sense, is still willing to go out and do extras on his game.”

If Scotland’s defence showed an improvement there was also a championship try for the first time in three matches and a glance at statistics just released show how badly needed Max Evans’ effort is.

Of all the competing countries, Scotland’s try average per match (1.15) since the expansion of the tournament is the lowest behind Italy (1.22), followed by Wales (2.08), Ireland (2.58), France (2.68) and England (3.17).

Meanwhile, there is no chance of Italy suffering a hangover to their first win over France according to Azzurri players.

Benetton Treviso winger Tomasso Benvenuti looked ahead to Murrayfield, saying: “The important thing is to stay humble, keep your head down, work hard and the results will come if we show the same tenacity and hard work that we always have,” he said.

“We’ve seen that Scotland are very physical and we will try to dominate them physically.

“It will be a high intensity match on a physical level, they don’t have the ability to move the ball like the French but they will try to put us under pressure like they did against England.

“They played very well, I’m sure they will be concentrating on aggression because they’re looking for their first win of the tournament.

“We’re used to fighting hard and playing so many tough games without easing off mentally or physically.”