Scotland’s RBS 6 Nations frustrations continued on Saturday as they fell to a 13-6 defeat to Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The result leaves the Scots at the foot of the Championship table and was the product of a disjointed performance from Andy Robinson’s men, who were dominated in terms of territory and possession throughout. Scottish attempts to lay attacking foundations were undermined by repeated difficulties in the lineout, a genuine pity given how well they got to grips with the Azzurri pack in the scrum. Scotland’s RBS 6 Nations frustrations continued on Saturday as they fell to a 13-6 defeat to Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The result leaves the Scots at the foot of the Championship table and was the product of a disjointed performance from Andy Robinson’s men, who were dominated in terms of territory and possession throughout. Scottish attempts to lay attacking foundations were undermined by repeated difficulties in the lineout, a genuine pity given how well they got to grips with the Azzurri pack in the scrum. Yellow cards to Nick De Luca and Jim Hamilton were further obstacles to momentum, and Scotland’s unflattering run of results in the Italian capital goes on. Asked if he believes he’s still the man to take Scotland forward, head coach Robinson said: I believe I can. We need to have time to think through what has happened and then put a plan together for the future. He reiterated that he is contracted to 2015. Scotland were forced into a late personnel change, Allan Jacobsen suffering an injury in the warm-up and replaced at loosehead prop by Jon Welsh, who thus made his Test debut. Italy enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges, stringing together plenty of phases and drawing a couple of penalties for side entry at the ruck. Mirco Bergamasco, Italy’s most capped player in the RBS 6 Nations, knocked over the second of these awards to give the hosts an 11th minute lead (Italy 3 Scotland 0). It took Scotland a further six minutes to establish anything like their first real attack, Italian loosehead Andrea Lo Cicero penalised at a scrum and Laidlaw kicking to touch to set up the lineout. But the Scots couldn’t claim the throw, and Italy were off the hook. The Azzurri soon brought about another shot at goal, as Dave Denton got himself isolated breaking from the base of a scrum and conceded a penalty. The Italians gained a further 10m for apparent Scottish dissent, putting the kick well within Bergamasco’s reach, but the winger couldn’t quite persuade the ball to sneak between the uprights. Scotland were required to undertake another bout of defending as we approached the half hour mark, Italy again recycling possession and setting up camp in the visitors’ 22. John Barclay had to react smartly to charge down a drop goal attempt from Kristopher Burton as Italy tried to force the issue, and still the men in blue struggled to put together much in the way of meaningful attacking play themselves. Overall, the fare was fractured and fractious at this stage, an impression backed up by the subdued nature of the crowd packed into this magnificent arena. Scotland at least could take comfort and inspiration from their continued success in the set-piece. Another good drive won a penalty right on the fringes of Greig Laidlaw’s kicking range, and the Edinburgh Rugby stand-off held his nerve quite brilliantly to level up the scores four minutes before the interval (Italy 3 Scotland 3). Having got themselves right back in the game, Scotland again made life hard for themselves with 90 seconds left on the clock. De Luca kicked the ball out of Edoardo Gori’s hands as the scrum-half assessed his options behind the ruck, an offence which saw the centre ordered to the sin bin. Bergamasco again missed with his kick, allowing the teams to turn around all square. Half-time: Italy 3-3 Scotland Italy came out of the traps very strongly upon the restart, determined to press home their numerical advantage. Having piled on the pressure for fully two minutes, they overcame the Scottish resistance as winger Giovambattista Venditti blasted through the last lines of cover in a depleted visiting defence to go over on the left. Burton’s conversion gave Italy a seven-point advantage (Italy 10 Scotland 3). Almost instantly, Scotland might have trimmed the deficit, Italy coming in from the side at a ruck on the Scottish right and presenting Laidlaw with another challenging kick at goal. The Jed man struck the ball well, but saw it drift just wide. Scotland survived the rest of De Luca’s absence without conceding further points, but were soon back down to 14 men as Hamilton picked up what looked on first appraisal to be a harsh yellow card for taking down the Italian maul. Al Kellock, a replacement for the injured Richie Gray in the second row, won Scotland a penalty when he was taken in the air at a lineout on the left. Interestingly, the incident did not result in the game’s third sin-binning, but Laidlaw did do the business from the tee to give Robinson’s men fresh heart (Italy 10 Scotland 6). Their hopes of turning things around received another boost in the 66th minute, when referee Rolland finally lost patience with Italian infringers, flashing a yellow at blindside Alessandro Zanni after he went off his feet at the ruck. Still Scotland couldn’t muster coherence in attack, a failing not helped by the misfiring lineout, and the writing was on the wall with two minutes to play as Burton knocked over a drop goal on the back of another disciplined period of patient probing by the Italian pack (Italy 13 Scotland 6). Italy15 Andrea Masi (Aironi); 14 Giovambattista Venditti (Aironi), 13 Tommaso Benvenuti (Benetton Treviso), 12 Gonzalo Canale (Clermont Auvergne), 11 Mirco Bergamasco (Racing Metro); 10 Kristopher Burton (Aironi), 9 Edoardo Gori (Benetton Treviso); 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro), 2 Fabio Ongaro (Aironi), 3 Martin Castrogiovanni (Leicester Tigers), 4 Quintin Geldenhuys (Aironi), 5 Marco Bortolami (Aironi), 6 Alessandro Zanni (Benetton Treviso), 7 Robert Barbieri (Benetton Treviso) 8 Sergio Parisse (CAPTAIN, Stade Francais) Substitutes16 Tommaso D’Apice (Aironi) for Ongaro 57min, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini (Benetton Treviso) for Lo Cicero 52min, 18 Joshua Furno (Aironi) for Geldenhuys 75min, 19 Simone Favaro (Aironi) for Zanni 73min, 20 Manoa Vosawai (Benetton Treviso) for Barbieri 57min, 21 Tobias Botes (Benetton Treviso) for Gori 67min, 22 Giulio Toniolatti (Aironi) for Canale 69min Scotland 15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); 14 Max Evans (Castres), 13 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets); 10 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby), 9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh Rugby); 1 Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors), 2 Ross Ford (captain, Edinburgh Rugby), 3 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby), 4 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), 5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester), 6 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 7 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby), 8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby) Substitutes16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester), 17 Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons) for Cross 49min, 18 Al Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) for Gray 55min, 19 Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks) for Barclay 68min, 20 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), 21 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) for Laidlaw 68min, 22 Jack Cuthbert (Bath) Referee: A Rolland (Ireland)