Scotland have to sort their broken breakdown if they are to stop Italy growing further in confidence at Murrayfield this weekend.
Former skipper Ross Ford returns to the team at hooker and pinpointed the tackle area as the key to the Scots winning their first RBS 6 Nations game since the last time they hosted Italy in March 2011.
That day the Scots’ home template for dealing with the Italians winning the collisions and putting the Azzurri pack under pressure worked perfectly and Ford believes it is essential Scotland don’t allow their visitors to settle.
“We all know how hard they are when they get in front and that the longer they are in a game, the more they feed off it,” said Ford. “They become a very difficult side to break down and score against.
“Against France they showed that. They played with an incredible amount of passion and played with that for the whole time. They are a good side and we have to make sure that we are spot on for this game.
“We have shown in the past that we can handle them, it is just a question of going out and doing it.”
The team has analysed the problem at the breakdown in the opening match, not surprisingly as the tackle area is another of the Italians’ strengths, but Ford thinks if the attitude is right then the form will follow.
“On the whole we were not quite there quickly enough,” said Ford. “If you are on the back foot then their defence looks great because they are constantly putting you under pressure and getting you behind the gain line, they have time to re-set and pick out who they are going to hit.
“We have talked a lot this week and worked at it technically but, at the end of the day, it is an attitude thing that makes you do that and get in those positions quickly and more aggressively.
“You can do all the technical work you want, but if you don’t back it up with attitude and aggression then it’s not going to be great.”
Ford missed the final autumn match against Tonga and most of the intervening matches for Edinburgh but feels ready for a return to his best British Lions form.
“Obviously I have not had a lot of game time but, now I have got this opportunity, I just have to take it,” he said.
“I did a lot of fitness work while I was off and on the whole I felt reasonably good last week but it will be a different scenario this weekend.
“We have done it before, turned around a bad result on the opening weekend.”