... is what we would like. Well, apart from the last 7 minutes (plus, of course, the all important 2 minutes after the match clock had expired - cheers George).

But for Scotland fans there is no choice but onwards and upwards, after witnessing what was not only great sporting drama but also probably the most complete 70 minutes of rugby put together by one of our teams since 1999 or so. The last ten minutes of Scottish lunacy will of course be familiar to Italian fans who have benefitted in the past from Scotland's desperate attempts to hand them a victory (6 Minutes of Murrayfield Madness, anyone?), and it will hopefully be with this in mind that Scotland travel to play Italy. Although it was often said during Frank Hadden's reign only for the next week's results to disprove any such theory, there is now a real feeling of progress being made by Scotland under Andy Robinson and a win against Italy must be their only target to maintain the trend (and fend off the Wooden Spoon).

Our line-out is starting to fire - Ross Ford seems to throw better when he has a giant like Jim Hamilton as a target, and our top scrummaging front row of Allan "Chunk" Jacobsen, Ford and Euan Murray has been picked to compete and even go after the Italian scrum. There is a settled look to the pack, along with a bit more oomph on the bench in Hines and Strokosch.

Of course the back division was nearly wiped out against Wales with the loss of Evans, Lamont and Paterson (all returned home now, best wishes for the recovery boys) so the incomers (Southwell, Danielli, Max Evans) have a job to do but all three have their strengths - Southwell's left boot, Evans' familiarity with Parks and Danielli's nose for the try line.

The home team looked stagnant and uninspired against Ireland (who looked pretty similar) but upped their game considerably against England and played some nice offloading rugby towards the end. What price a Scotland-Italy game full of running rugby and daring trickery? The main thing we Scots are hoping is that Dan Parks - who turned from pariah to legend in the Wales game before limping off when he was needed most - proves more than a one week wonder. He has played well for Scotland before, but he needs to back it up game after game. Most encouraging was the way he brought his backs into the match, an aspect of his game that previously had gone missing between club and test level. Italy of course also have an antipodean 10 who has not had his troubles to seek off the field, and it could well be that the battle between Parks and Gower decides the game, rather than the power of Sean Lamont or the pace of Kaine Robertson.

Rory Baldwin is the Editor of Scottish Rugby Blog.