Italy fly-half Paolo Garbisi pops over the first points of the game.

Scotland have fallen into a bad habit of giving away cheap penalties and here's another one from an offside at a line-out.

Scotland going through the phases and Finn Russell sends up a kick that comes down with snow on it. Well held by Edoardo Padovani.

And away we go.

Englishman Luke Pearce is today's referee.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend on BBC Radio Scotland:

"The players have been excellent this week", he said. "We've had lots of conversations about how we can improve from France.

"We can't have distractions around the atmosphere, the weather, the opposition. We have to deliver our performance today - if we do that, then we should win."

At 28, Kyle Steyn has had to wait a while for his first Six Nations start.

The Jo'burg-born winger takes over from Duhan van der Merwe, another South African-turned Scot, who is suspended for a red card tackle on international squad-mate Kyle Rowe while playing for Worcester against London Irish.

Steyn has four tries in three previous appearances for Scotland, all of them coming against Tonga in November.

Image source, SNS

Peter Wright
Former Scotland prop on BBC Radio Scotland

The players are out and the national anthems are in full swing. The pipe band on the pitch are doing a grand job.

Leonardo Marin is one to keep an eye on, with the 20-year-old winning his fourth cap and starting at 12 for the second successive game.

He's kicked winning points against Edinburgh and Glasgow already this season.

Fly-half Paolo Garbisi, at 21, has a move to Montpellier under his belt and looks like the real deal.

Captain Michele Lamaro is 23 and a powerful back-rower who won't take a backward step.

Winger Tommaso Menoncello, 19, isn't involved today but marked his debut with a try against France, which isn't too shabby.

Image source, Getty Images

Scotland scrum-half wins his 50th cap today.

His first came against Georgia in the autumn of 2016.

Tom English
BBC Scotland's chief sports writer

Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg have had poor championships, both error-laden shadows of themselves.

Russell has looked frustrated. He's been impatient in some of the things he's done - grubber kicks and risky passes that have little or no chance of success, and that are done as a desperate last resort in the face of heavy pressure, mistakes that put his team on the back foot again. That footage of him jogging up the field as France broke free in the build-up to their first try at Murrayfield did not reflect well on him.

Hogg has countered with little impact and kicked poorly. Ali Price hasn't played well either. That's three significant players who haven't performed, who have made costly mistakes at critical times against Wales and France.

Townsend has kept faith with them and needs some payback.

Read more from Tom here...

Image source, SNS

Scotland ran in eight tries against Italy in Edinburgh last year.

The last tournament visit to Rome in 2020 was another comfortable day, with three tries and not a single point conceded.

But it's not always been like that as those seven losses attest to, while last-gasp kicks were required for victories in Italy in 2014 and 2018.

Image source, SNS

Italy have lost a staggering 35 games on the bounce in this competition.

It's been seven long years since they last won a Six Nations contest.

However, Italy will always view Scotland as their best bet for success.

Italy have only ever won 11 championship games since it all started in 2000 and seven of those have come against the Scots.

The impressive performance of Rory Darge was the one bright light in a rather gloomy home defeat to France last time out.

The 22-year-old shone on his first international start, scoring a try and standing up so well against a ferocious visiting pack and topping the charts for carries.

"He's almost like-for-like with Hamish Watson," was how for former captain John Barclay described the Glasgow flanker.

Well, Watson is back now after a bout of Covid, so it will be interesting to see how those two combine.

Scotland make five changes to the starting XV seen off by France.

Sam Johnson comes in at inside centre as Sione Tuipulotu drops to the bench and Kyle Steyn replaces the suspended Duhan van der Merwe on the wing.

George Turner swaps with Stuart McInally at hooker and in the back row Hamish Watson and Matt Fagerson return from Covid and injury respectively.

In the replacements, Ben Vellacott could make his debut at scrum-half and fly-half Adam Hastings and prop Allan Dell are recalled.

Scotland:15-Hogg (capt); 14-Graham, 13-Harris, 12-Johnson, 11-Steyn; 10-Russell, 9-Price; 1-Schoeman, 2-Turner, 3-Z. Fagerson; 4-Skinner, 5-Gilchrist; 6-Darge, 7-Watson, 8-M. Fagerson.

Replacements:16-McInally, 17-Dell, 18-Nel, 19-Hodgson, 20-Bradbury, 21-Vellacott, 22-Hastings, 23-Tuipulotu.

Italy have scored 16 points so far and conceded a whopping 127.

Hooker Giacomo Nicotera makes his debut today, with Gianmarco Lucchesi and Hame Faiva out through injury and suspension, so expect Scotland to go after the home line-out.

Callum Braley comes in for Stephen Varney at scrum-half.

Italy:15-Padovani; 14-Bruno, 13-Brex, 12-Marin, 11-Ioane; 10-Garbisi, 9-Braley; 1-Fischetti, 2-Nicotera, 3-Ceccarelli; 4-Cannone, 5-Ruzza; 6-Pettinelli, 7-Lamaro (capt), 8-Halafihi.

Replacements:16-Bigi, 17-Nemer, 18-Zilocchi, 19-Sisi, 20-Zuliani, 21-Fusco, 22-Zanon, 23-Capuozzo.

Benvenuto. The Six Nations continues with Scotland in Rome.

The hosts are rock bottom with zero points from three outings, while the visitors are currently in fifth place after one win.

A campaign that promised much fizzled out pretty quickly for Gregor Townsend's side, so now it's a question of finishing on a high, with a tough trip to Dublin coming up next weekend.

A convincing win is what Scotland need. Can they deliver?

Image source, SNS