PRESSURE MOUNTS ON TOONY AS FLOPS

FROM BACK PAGE

- 

faced as fired-up Italy raced into a 12-point lead within 14 minutes through tries by Louis Lynagh and Tommaso Menoncello and Paolo Garbisi’s conversion.

Scotland - with big-hitters Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe all dropped = were unable to get their attack firing in response.

Their execution of set-pieces continually malfunctioned as Italy held firm despite tries from Jack Dempsey and George Horne, with Finn Russell adding the extras.

It was the first time since 2020 that Scotland - had lost their opening game of the Six Nations.

The timing of this horror show on the sodden Stadio Olimpico surface could hardly be worse for long-serving head coach Townsend.

He was already under intense scrutiny after a poor Autumn campaign and his contentious decision to take on a part-time consultancy role with Red Bull.

Townsend said: “Hugely disappointed to lose our first game, it makes things tougher.

“The effort was there. A lot of what we trained was inplace. We just gave away too many possessions. We just weren't able to score more points in the first half.