Tim Visser, Matt Scott, Stuart Hogg and Sean Lamont all crossed in the 34-10 victory while scrum-half Greig Laidlaw contributed 14 points with the boot against the Azzurri.

The win moved Scotland into second in the RBS 6 Nations table with Ireland, who also lost to England but on their own turf on Sunday, the next side to visit Murrayfield.

And No.8 Beattie, who is appearing in his fourth RBS 6 Nations campaign, is adamant if Scotland can maintain the quality shown against Italy they can challenge for the title.

“Everyone is in it; it’s a very open championship. So there is absolutely no reason why not,” said Beattie, who plays for Montpellier in the French Top 14.

“The next challenge is very different with Ireland around the corner but we are looking forward to taking it on and seeing how far we can go.

“The Irish team’s attack is very different; there is maybe a bit more subtlety. The Italian forward pack is an absolute juggernaut so to defend in the manner we did and to hold them out was fantastic.

“There will be different types of test but if we can get our line speed, get off the line and chop people the way we did against Italy, there is absolutely no reason why we can’t replicate what we did on Saturday.”