Johnstone's red light can halt Scottish progress

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Johnstone's red light can halt Scottish progress

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Italy's coach, Brad Johnstone, has a ticklish problem, trying to demonstrate to his willing and eager charges the difference between showing road sense and being streetwise as they prepare to take on a Scotland side that will be far cannier today than the over-confident bunch who rolled up and were rolled over at the Stadio Flaminio two years ago.

After naively conceding a plethora of penalties which cost them dear against France two weeks ago, the Azzurri have worked hard on discipline in the intervening days.

But Johnstone is only too well aware that however good things look on the training ground, it all boils down to how well his team plays the referee. Today it is the New Zealander Kelvin Deaker, a very different prospect from Alan Lewis, the Irish official whose interpretations of the laws had him blowing his whistle at the Italians on some 20 occasions.

"A professional team has to adapt to different referees," Johnstone said, "but we do have a problem in that on the domestic front the standards of refereeing are not as high and there is no consistency, consequently when our boys step up to the Six Nations they find they cannot get away with anything like as much as they can in the Italian championship.

"The problem is that this is Italy where, when you are in a car a red light does not necessarily mean stop, and lines running down a road do not indicate that there are lanes to drive in. But we have discussed our discipline, studied videos and we will be meeting the referee before today's game. Then it will up to the players to adapt to what Mr Deaker expects."

But there are other aspects of Italy's play which have also come under the microscope of late, the most notable being the one that Scotland's coach, Ian McGeechan, has highlighted to his troops, the Azzurri's disturbing tendency to run out of steam close to half-time and again as the end of the match draws near.

"We have a history of falling away in the last five minutes of each half," Johnstone admitted. "Against France, for example, we gave away a try in each final period of the game, that is something else we have addressed this week, and hopefully our concentration against the Scots will survive the full 80 minutes and we will be just as strong at the end of that period as we were at the start."

He certainly knows that is how the Scots will approach the game, full-out from start to finish with barely a pause for breath.

They have quite a slate to wipe clean. In 1998, in a non-championship match in Treviso, Scotland suffered defeat. The prospect of succumbing for a third time should be enough to dispel any complacency in the tartan ranks.

Gregor Townsend has been switched to fly-half in a bid to present the Scots with a few more attacking options, and the Italians with an additional headache because of the Castres player's unpredictability and remarkable vision. A game can turn on one Townsend twist or turn.

He was a member of the team that lost that Six Nations match in 2000 and he said: "We probably underestimated how well they would play in their first game in the Six Nations.

"This time around they will be aware that in the wake of our Calcutta Cup defeat that this represents their best opportunity of a win and they deservedly start as favourites. But we have simplified our approach in our preparations this week. We have to win quick ball to create things and do what we failed to do two years ago, which is to think two or three phases ahead."

Johnstone sees very little difference between the two teams. "Both play with passion. We both have similar problems with lack of strength in depth. We both play a similar style."

They both also want to win. But it promises to be a tricky journey.

The Scots are quite capable of hitting the high road or the low road; for their part Italy must avoid road rage and will need to recognise red lights and be mindful of their lane discipline. And one thing is for sure, a wrong turn will leave either side running up a cul-de-sac to nowhere.