The visitors shocked Frank Hadden's side with a 37-17 victory, largely thanks to the 21-0 head start the Scots gave them.

Hadden has since restated his view that transfer speculation involving Scotland’s top players was not the cause of Scotland’s disappointing performance against Italy.

However, Hadden did admit to being personally distracted in the build-up to the crucial encounter.

“I would hate to think that was a factor, but I know that it was a huge concern to me,” he said.

“I spent an inordinate amount of time last week involved in that kind of stuff, as I did on Sunday and Monday, when I would rather be involved on focusing on preparing the national team.

“So if anyone lost their focus then perhaps it was me. I don’t think that was the case. I was hugely involved in stuff going on behind the scenes, which I would rather not have been.”