Six Nations: Stuart Hogg defends his form in Scotland's opening two matches and hits out at negativity

Stuart Hogg believes it is unfair that people have highlighted the costly errors he made in the Six Nations defeats against Ireland and England at a time when he is “confident” his form is at a high level.

Scotland's Stuart Hogg, left, and Ali Price at Edinburgh Airport ahead of the squad's departure for Rome. Picture: Gary Hutchison / SNS

The Scotland skipper will lead his side into the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday afternoon for a meeting with Italy which will define a campaign and potentially the future of Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend.

Hogg, however, accepted that Scotland “must learn quickly” if they are to revive their championship campaign against an Italian team who are on a miserable run of 24 straight Six Nations since their win at Murrayfield five years ago.

"We need to get our stuff spot on," said Exeter Chiefs full-back Hogg.

"We are constantly learning, but we need to learn quickly. We can't be sitting here in a couple of years' time saying exactly the same things. We've said that for a while now.

"The exciting thing is we can get better. The boys are working hard to create opportunities. We do expect to win everything - but the reality is we can't win everything."

"I will be doing my normal performance, going out to express myself and have some fun," said the Exeter Chiefs full-back after the final team training run in Rome.

"But everybody concentrates on the negatives nowadays, rather than the positives that happened in the game.

"I'm a confident player. I believe in my ability. I know that, on my day, I can play some good rugby. I'm looking forward to doing that on Saturday."

Scotland are still to register a try but two losing bonus points mean they sit just above Italy in the table.

Looking ahead to the match, Townsend said: "Italy are always a very tough opponent, especially in Rome, where we know they'll look to play with a huge amount of energy.

"It's a different Italy team to the one we've played in the past. In their opening two games, they have played with real ambition and width.

"They've also selected athletic ball-players who suit this strategy and are comfortable playing at a high tempo.

"We are well aware of the threats throughout their team and how their attacking game can cause problems for any defence."

Subscribe to The Scotsman for unrivalled Six Nations coverage

The Scotsman is the best place to read the most insightful Six Nations reporting and analysis from our award-winning team of writers. And the only way to read more than 5 Scotsman articles per week is to sign up for a digital subscription, starting at just £1 per month for the first 3 months. Visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions to find out more.