There was no hiding Bryan Easson’s frustration after the Scotland Women’s coach saw his charges beaten 41-20 by Italy at Scotstoun in the Women’s Six Nations.  

The Scots had entered the game confident that they could get the better of the Azzurre and book their place in the third-place play-off on Super Saturday, but quickly found themselves chasing the scoreboard as the visitors ran in two early tries.  

Lana Skeldon’s score and five points from the boot of Helen Nelson got Scotland back to within two points, but Ilaria Arrighetti’s try on the stroke of half-time proved decisive as Italy went in 19-10 up.  

They ended up scoring seven tries in all, with the Scottish defence far too passive for much of the game, and Easson pulled no punches in his assessment.  

“I am really disappointed, the performance wasn’t good enough,” he said.   

“We talked about coming out of the traps in the first 20 minutes but we were 12-0 down in a short space of time and it had us chasing the game.   

“We did well to come back to 12-10 but then to concede a soft try immediately before half-time and another just after really put us under pressure.   

“The game ebbed and flowed but when we got into the ascendancy, we gave the ball back far too easily.   

“We missed silly tackles and ultimately we learnt a harsh lesson and there were some harsh words said at full-time. But we have to learn because we can’t go one step forwards and two steps back. We have to get better.”  

Italy skipper Manuela Furlan starred with a hat-trick for the visitors, but Scotland had looked like they might come back into it when they got the score back to 12-10 on the stroke of half-time.  

But a fumbled restart handed possession back to Italy and they were clinical on their way to victory.  

That leaves Scotland with a clash against Wales to avoid bottom spot in the competition next week, and skipper Nelson admits her team cannot afford to make as many errors next week if they are to record a first win in the competition this season.  

She added: “There are parts of that where we played well but ultimately but that is not the full 80-minute performance we wanted to put out, so the girls are deflated.   

“We did have some good phases of possession in the second half but probably not enough. We were too soft at times and if you make mistakes at this level, teams are going to take advantage of it.   

“We are not going to feel sorry for ourselves, we have some time to reflect and a game next week to put it right.   

“The belief is there, we are willing to work for each other but it is not all about hard work. We made individual errors and they are things you can’t do. We are frustrated with that.”