Six Nations 2022: Italy v Scotland - Big names need to follow Rory Darge example

The official Six Nations stats put Rory Darge's number of turnovers against France a fortnight ago at three. Actually, he had four. In 71 minutes. Against arguably the best team in the world.

If you're looking for positives from that Saturday at Murrayfield, you'll begin - and end - with Darge. There wasn't a whole lot of good in between.

The 22-year-old had 14 carries and ran for 76m, which ranked him number one on the park, even ahead of the carrier to beat most carriers, Gregory Alldritt. That's some going when your team has just been horsed by 19 points and by six tries to two. It was the first time in 17 years Scotland shipped that many tries at home in a Six Nations match.

In a team giving away more penalties than is acceptable at this rarefied level - the France game was the 10th time in 11 Tests their numbers were in double figures - try scorer Darge didn't even concede one. So feast on the crumb of comfort that is the brilliant Glasgow flanker.

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On to Rome and, yes, Scotland should win - and may win convincingly - but there's always a wee tremor. The easy Six Nations days you can count on one hand. There was the 2002 game, the 2016 game and the 2020 game and that was it.

For the trials and tribulations on the road, you'll need both hands. Defeat in 2000 and 2004, a hairy three-point win in 2006, more defeats in 2008, 2010 and 2012, a win in 2014 secured by a 79th-minute Duncan Weir drop goal, a win in 2018 secured by a 79th-minute Greig Laidlaw penalty.

This is why, no matter how bad it gets for Italy, no matter how many games they have lost in succession - seven years since they last won a Six Nations contest - they always feel Scotland is their best chance. Italy have won only 11 championship games in 22 years, seven against the Scots. The last time they won, it was Scotland they defeated.

If Scotland had maintained their steady progress from 2020 and 2021 then this Test wouldn't hold many fears for them. Their defence has been a rock solid foundation for two seasons, but that resilience and ability to stay in the fight was blown away by the French.

Scotland's attack has only sparked intermittently. They are at their most dangerous when playing unstructured rugby off turnover ball. They scored a lot of tries off transition last season, but those opportunities haven't come as easily this time and too many of the ones they've had have been butchered by a lack of precision.

They have become a team that makes an inordinate amount of handling errors and concedes too many penalties. They check their own momentum with poor decisions. When hit with a suffocating defence, Scotland have lost their heads too many times.

Changing face of Scotland has failed to yield success

The biproduct of winning more games over the past two years is opposition coaches now have to work harder on their analysis to figure Scotland out. Wales just about managed it. France managed it with ease. England were managing it but lost a game they'd dominated for an hour.

In the absence of Cam Redpath, Townsend has toiled to find a 12 that can bring some threat. He began the championship with Sam Johnson then dumped him from the 23 and went with Sione Tuipulotu and has now gone back to Johnson. Adam Hastings, not deemed good enough to make an initial squad of 39 players, has been brought back in from the wilderness.

Even if the marquee guys suddenly find themselves over the final two weekends of the tournament, it's too late. Even if they win in Rome and Dublin then it doesn't save the season. It might take the dirty look off it, but you wouldn't call it progress. If they finish on just two wins, it would represent worrying regression. Townsend, and his senior players, will face some robust questioning if it plays out that way.

Scotland's mission was to be in the hunt for the title on the final day. That was their next step, but that target bit the dust after round three. A loss to France would not have been a knockout blow had they won in Cardiff.

Injuries had a part to play, for sure. Wales was a non-negotiable must-win and they went into it without Jamie Ritchie, the dog who barks in this outfit. When he's not there, Scotland are not the same.

To stand a better chance of contending to the final day, Scotland's matchday 23 needed to have Ritchie, Darge, Hamish Watson and Matt Fagerson firing, every time. It needed to have Jonny Gray (who's looked tired in his outings so far) and Scott Cummings bringing their very best stuff.

'Hogg & Russell shadows of themselves'

The front row holds its own against most rivals, but Scotland's much-acclaimed depth isn't deep enough and its underbelly isn't tough enough when Gray, Watson and Fagerson miss a game, when Ritchie misses two and when Cummings misses all three played to date.

And the ship really starts to list when the influential players behind the scrum are no longer influential. 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. A convincing Scotland victory isn't going to shake up the world - the world would barely notice - but it might give them something to work with before Dublin. Anything other than a routine day and that mission a week later will take on an altogether more daunting look.

The nagging concern for Scotland is that routine days in Rome have rarely been their thing.