Italy...20 Scotland...14: As Italy's team coach with police outriders sped off down the Via Flaminio into the Roman night a phalanx of supporters on the pavement cheered it on its way.
The Italian rugby team will never grip the nation's consciousness as do the Azzurri's soccer stars, but Saturday's thoroughly merited victory, their coach John Kirwan maintains, is an important step in their long campaign for credibility.
"Italy's goal is to win the Six Nations in the next five to eight years," he said. "But it's important to wake up tomorrow morning and keep working hard if we're to achieve that."
As Kirwan was speaking, Paul Griffen, Italy's scrumhalf, was spraying champagne around the dressing-room. He and his team-mates deserved their day in the sun. It was, as Kirwan said, "a great day for Italian rugby".
Worrying for Scotland, though, was that on a day that Twickenham witnessed a shock that reverberated around the rugby world, this defeat was hardly a shock at all. Scotland coach Matt Williams has presided over three defeats since becoming coach after the World Cup and seems to be heading for a whitewash. His constant refrain is that Scotland are not good enough and a massive amount of rebuilding is to be done. Dampening down expectations is all very well but his pessimism seems to be transmitting itself to the players.
The core of their pack - stalwarts like Scott Murray, Stuart Grimes and Gordon Bulloch - are just not playing well enough, while new faces such as Allister Hogg, Chris Cusiter and Simon Webster are struggling to cope with the demands of international rugby.
Captain Chris Paterson has the hunched look of a man with the world on his shoulders. He was outplayed by his opposite number, Roland de Marigny, wearing the Italy number 10 shirt for the first time. De Marigny controlled the game by kicking astutely for position and landed all five of his penalties.
The teams were locked together at 9-9 at the break but a minute after the interval Griffen found touch in the corner, Grimes palmed back at the lineout and Fabio Ongaro beat Bulloch to touch down for Italy's first try in the 2004 Six Nations.
Williams claimed Ongaro had nudged the ball forward and video replays showed he had a case. Kirwan of course disagreed. "It looked like a lovely try to me."
Scotland created little apart from some sustained pressure just past the hour mark and when Webster finally did breach the defence deep into injury time it was small consolation to the long-suffering Scotland fans who had turned up in their thousands.
Guardian Service
ITALY: Canale (Bergamasco 80); Mazzucato, Stoica, M Dallan (Wakarua, 49), D Dallan; De Marigny, Griffen; Lo Cicero, Ongaro (Festuccia 79), Castrogiovanni, Dellape, Bortolami, De Rossi (capt), Persico, Parisse (Orlando 65). Try: Ongaro. Pens: De Marigny 5.
SCOTLAND: Hinshelwood; Danielli (Lee, 78), Philip, Laney (Henderson, 80), Webster; Paterson (capt), Cusiter (Blair, h-t); Jacobsen (Kerr, h-t), Bulloch, Douglas (Jacobsen, 70), Murray, Grimes (Hines, 70), White (Petrie, 80), Hogg, Taylor. Try: Webster. Pens: Paterson 3.
Referee: N Whitehouse (Wales).
