Michele Lamaro was visibly frustrated at seeing his Italy side slip to defeat in Rome, admitting that costly errors at key moments were the difference against Scotland.
Gli Azzurri ran in three tries at the Stadio Olimpico, and matched the Scots for long periods, but a try from an interception in the Scottish 22, and a slow start to the second half allowed the visitors to run out 33-22 victors.
Chris Harris’ try, when Ali Price intercepted the ball with Italy camped on the Scottish line, was arguably the key moment of the game, Italy missing the chance to go back in front and effectively conceding a 14-point swing, much to the frustration of Lamaro.
Lamaro said: “The try from the interception by Price weighed heavily. We were attacking and moving forward in their 22 and then what happened, happened: it’s a scenario where you are punished twice, beyond the points that they scored, there are also the points that we didn’t. It’s tough, we have to learn from this and not concede situations like that to our opponents.
“In the end, the fact that we were out of the game paradoxically freed us up mentally and we were able to build our attacking game more efficiently scoring two tries through collective build-up that we can and must consider the standard from the first minute.
“Today Scotland knew how to put pressure on at the breakdown, in that area they have got players who are very capable and we really struggled all game. Against Wales, it will probably be a similar situation, we will have to work hard on it this week.”
Scotland were very effective on turnover ball, opening up a 33-10 lead before debutant Ange Capuozzo scored two tries in the closing stages.
And Kieran Crowley admitted that the Grenoble full-back had made a big impression after coming on.
He said: “I was impressed by his performance, he showed good resilience, bouncing back from some uncertainty early on and scoring two good tries. That puts us, the coaching staff, under pressure for the choices going forwards.”
In terms of the game itself, Crowley has urged the team to learn from the performance, insisting this was an important experience for the side.
He added: “We gave up ground on the gain line too often and were less effective with our tackles compared to our recent performances.
“In the first 20 minutes of the second half, in particular, Scotland were able to throttle any chance of a comeback, keeping us away from their line and making it hard at the breakdown.
“For the rest, we paid the price for some decisions taken by players who now, thanks in part to what happened today, will have more experience at this level and who we will be counting on against Wales and in the summer Tests.”
