Botes had shaky game with the tee in the Azzurri’s third loss of the 2012 RBS 6 Nations in Dublin as the Irish ran out 42-10 winners at the Aviva Stadium.

His performance followed on from a nervy display with the boot against England two weeks previously when he came on as a second half replacement for club mate Kris Burton.

But instead of his teammates growing restless, Favaro insists the squad are fully behind him and with only two caps to his name, it’s just a question of time before he comes good.

“If there’s a kicker who can put over 100% of his kicks or three back rowers who can bring the ball forward the whole time or three props who can dominate the scrum then obviously it’s an advantage,” said Favaro.

“But Tobias has a high kicking percentage, he didn’t have it against Ireland but he doesn’t deserve this level of analysis.

“It was the individual errors that put together dragged us into a black hole of 40 points.

“It’s not the system that’s wrong it’s more that we are proposing a change of our game plan and it needs to come together still.”