The Italians went down 18-10 at Murrayfield and it was a desperately disappointing loss for coach John Kirwans men, who had realistic ambitions of picking up their first RBS 6 Nations victory on foreign soil before the game.

As it is the Azzurri now lie at the foot of the table, without a point to their name, and Bortolami didnt mince his words as he spelled out his frustration at his teams display.

Certainly we wasted a good occasion to get the first away victory, he said.

In the first half we were aggressive and pushed the Scottish in defence for most of the time, but we missed a few important kicks and our attacks couldnt deliver crucial points when we were close to their line.

In the interval we talked to each other promising to get the best of this game, but we didn't, we switched off most of the time and committed many mistakes especially losing many balls in the line out, but even our scrum wasn't good as it had been in the first half.

Italy now face a daunting conclusion to the tournament in the shape of a trip to face world champions England at Twickenham before France come calling at the Stadio Flaminio and the Narbonne lock is well aware of the task the Azzurri face to avoid the wooden spoon.

Now we have a mountain to climb if we want get points in the next few games, but I'm sure if we stay together we can make something good from this tournament, Bortolami added.

Meanwhile, flanker Aaron Persico echoed his captains thoughts and maintained that Italy served up a victory that, he felt, Scotland didnt deserve.

We came here with big hopes and honestly a great chance to grab the first ever away victory in the RBS 6 Nations, Persico said.

We started well, pushing the home team back, and I thought we were getting positive but errors with the kicking gave the Scottish a undeserved lead in the first half.

The second half we made many mistakes and we really gave away victory to a team who, to be honest, didn't do much to deserve it.

Now it will be hard to get points but we have to believe in ourselves and play great games against the English and French.