Italy couldn’t have asked for a better way to kickstart their campaign last weekend as they downed France 23-18 on Sunday in Rome for their second-straight home victory over Les Bleus.

Up next for the Azzurri is a trip to Scotland to take on a side beaten 38-18 by England in their opener – Italy having won just once at Murrayfield.

And despite getting off to the best possible start, coach Brunel is not about to get ahead of himself.

"The team has made a lot of progress in recent years and against France we gave a good image of our rugby, and showed we can play with character," he said.

"I was in emotional turmoil the whole match. France are a great side and it's never an easy game. The match could have gone either way as we saw.

"The team has really grown and against France they demonstrated their strength. It's the right time to manage Italy.

"We've worked a lot on our team and a lot on our game and I liked a lot of what I saw against France.

"Everyone says Scotland are not a great team at the moment but they are a hard team to play against, especially at Murrayfield, and last year they gave a lot of teams problems.”