Scotland’s stretched scrum resources have been backed to come through what could be the hardest test of their summer tour to South Africa with flying colours this weekend.
The man making the prediction is Massimo Cuttitta, Scotland’s scrum coach, who believes his speciality will be the key to Saturday’s final match of the Incoming Series tournament against Italy in Pretoria.
In their first match against Samoa, Scotland were facing a huge pack, but one that does not put much emphasis on the scrum.
They then held their own against South Africa in their second match, but that was nowhere near as impressive a performance as the Italian eight put in against the same opponents, often driving them yards backwards and winning penalties.
For Scotland’s depleted scrum several forwards have been forced to leave the tour early to hold its own this weekend, it will need its best performance of the month.
“They (Italy) are going to want to prove themselves in the scrum, they are good in that area. Every time we play them and that is somewhere we have to target them,” said Cuttitta, who captained Italy during his playing career.
“They are good there, but if we can target their set-piece then that is a big step to winning the game. We need to confront them up front, we can’t let them do what they have always done.
“They have some interesting youngsters and are also blooding a few younger players.”
One advantage for both teams is that they know each other well from Six Nations meetings, with the recent pattern being that each wins its home games and loses away.
The most recent meeting was Scotland’s 34-10 victory in Edinburgh earlier this year.
“They were convinced that they would come to Murrayfield and win and were really surprised at how we came at them,” Cuttitta said.
“That is how we have to approach them again, the same as last time just like it was at the weekend, where the effort was really good. There are a lot of positives to take out of that match against South Africa. As coaches we have reviewed it and there are a lot of positives.”