Edoardo Padovani – failure to gather loose ball after Esposito was stripped of it just short of the line was costly, but made a few decent carries 6
Angelo Esposito – most dangerous looking of the Italian runners, but very much a peripheral figures struggling to get into the game 6
Tommaso Benvenuti – defensively sound enough but hard to remember him getting the ball into his hands 5
Luke McLean – has helped bring a sense of solidity to the midfield defence since switch from full-back but again his side’s lack of ambition his side means he has far fewer opportunities to contribute 6
Giovanbattista Venditti – struggled horribly with the wet ball early on but as conditions brightened so did his performance 5
Carlo Canna – disastrous contribution as goal-kicker, missing all three attempts when his team badly needed to get on the scoreboard before the interval 4
Edoardo Gori – one darting break opened Scots up in first half, but had little other opportunity in that period to make an impact before going off early in the second 6
Andrea Lovotti - cost his side momentum by conceding a penalty under the Scottish posts and as the only member of the starting front-row not replaced at half-time the way he cramped up spoke to his team’s fitness issues 4
Ornel Gega –struggled to find his jumpers in the lineout other than when he was threw it in squint and was replaced at half-time 4
Lorenzo Citttadini – reputation of being a strong scrummager, but blasted backwards at first scrum and another whose ineffectiveness resulted in being replaced at the interval 4
Marco Fuser – contributed heftily to the post-interval bid to get back into the game but lacks the flamboyance of some of his predecessors in Italy’s boiler-house 6
George Biagi – in the absence of the injured Mark Bennett, he was Irvine’s finest afield, contributing in lineout and maul and making more than his share of tackles 6
Braam Steyn – impressive looking athlete who tackled energetically but failed to make much impact other than when the Italian pack made its repeated attempts to maul its way over early in second half 5
Maxime Mata Mbanda – far from a classicist’s idea of an international No.7 and consequently repeatedly beaten to the breakdown by his much lighter and more mobile opposite number 5
Sergio Parisse – as ever was as much stand off as loose forward in seeking to get his team onto front foot but closely marshalled in the loose and consequently much less influential than he can be 6
--
Leonardo Ghiraldini – on at half-time and brought his vast experience to bear in rousing Italian pack into their brief third quarter domination when he came on 7
Sami Panico – came on as a replacement just as Scotland were re-asserting themselves 4
Dario Chistolini – replaced Cittadini at half-time and out-performed him in all areas without doing anything striking 6
Dries van Schalwyk – got the best part of half an hour on the pitch but did nothing to catch the eye 5
Federico Ruzza – came on with five minutes to go to win first cap 5
Francesco Minto – put in a lot of hard work after coming on with around half an hour to go 5
Marcello Violi – decision to bring him on for the lively Gori seemed a strange one, especially in hindsight 5
Luca Sperandio – late replacement who did little of note 5
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here