On a heavy pitch in Sardinia, the young Italians grew in stature throughout the game, and eventually succumbed only as a result of a struggling scrum, with Enzo Selponi scoring France’s only try.

But while the performance showed a lot of potential, ahead of this week’s trip to Scotland, Guidi is adamant that he can take only limited satisfaction from a loss.

He said: “We lost and there are no honourable defeats. Unfortunately we created a lot but we didn’t manage to take our chances.

“I’m pleased with what we showed but not with the result, the guys showed that the work is paying, I’m proud of their attitude and for that reason I think they deserved to win. We could have won, but we showed that the young guys are there, and we need to have faith in them.”

Skipper Jacopo Salvetti echoed Guidi’s views and called on his teammates to learn from the defeat and build from it.

He added: “We knew it would be a tough game, and that’s what it was. But this performance represents a good starting point for us. We aren’t pleased, we lost and can’t consider 13-6 like a good result but, as I said we can go from here and try to win our remaining four games.”