No wooden spoon but no progress, and, for Frank Hadden, surely now no future. Scotland managed to avoid the ultimate indignity here, but still they will wake this morning with every reason to feel bad about themselves. Like so much of their RBS Six Nations campaign, this loss was a horrible, pathetic surrender. With 20 minutes to go, the job seemed done but Scotland, quite criminally, signed off early in the Roman sun, nourishing Italian hope with an intercept try, then handing over the initiative as well.

The home forwards, apparently becalmed after their usual early fire, took new heart and proceeded to thrust a dagger through Scotland’s, expertly creating the field position from where Andrea Marcato, the full-back, could kick the winning drop goal with only 40 seconds left on the clock.

Time has run out for Hadden, too. This was his eighth defeat in 10 Six Nations games, and although Scotland finish ahead of Italy on points difference, they have come up far too short on far too many other counts this year for that to matter.

If the end was a crash landing, there had been no flying start from Scotland either. Not surprising, perhaps, given that they lost another wing. Simon Danielli, making his first international start in three years, went the same way as Nikki Walker had last Friday, turning his right ankle horribly as he fell to earth after an aerial challenge with Alessandro Zanni. The early diagnosis is a fracture.

Danielli’s departure brought Andy Henderson into the centres, while Simon Webster was reacquainted with his more natural habitat out on the touchline. This gave Scotland a different look, but there was something gruesomely familiar about what followed.

While the opening Italian try owed much to the sheer irresistibility of their dominant scrum, Hadden’s team brought all the pressure on themselves. The 5m set-piece that Scotland pulled down to send referee Nigel Owens scampering under the posts with arms aloft really need never have happened.

It was the messy legacy of another entry being tagged on to the catalogue of errors the Scots have penned this spring, a Dan Parks midfield pass being picked off for the second, but not last, time in the game, allowing Kaine Robertson to set up a foot race with Chris Paterson by lofting to the corner. The Scotland wing did well both to secure the ball and touch it down in the face of a three-man Italian charge, but where the home backs fell marginally short, their pack were always likely to go the distance.

Within eight minutes of Italy’s penalty score, the visitors were pocketing deserved reward for a period of sustained and dynamic assault on the home line. It took them plenty of time to get there, but the difference from the France, Wales and Ireland games was that it seemed they knew where they were going. In place of those endless, soulless pick-and-drives were genuine punch, quick hands and fertile rugby brains.

Henderson might have crossed at the end of a persistent examination of the left bank of the Italian defence, but even when he lost his footing and the chance, Scotland held onto their nerve and possession. Soon they were giving the right corner another pounding, and when lock Scott MacLeod, a basketball player in his youth, popped up a marvellous pass from the deck to put in Ally Hogg, all this digging finally struck gold.

Perhaps even more importantly, it confirmed to the Scotland players that they had divined the right approach. As Wales and France have proved this year, when in Rome don’t do as the Romans do. The trick against Italy is to stretch them, dilute their power and their menace. This Scotland did impressively, their midfield running hard, aggressive lines, the forwards working hard and fast to provide quick ball, and Mike Blair offering a swift and varied threat when he received it.

The captain, who must be starting to fancy his chances of holding on to this title when he joins up with the Lions in South Africa, was the first half’s most imposing performer, and it was therefore fitting that he should adorn its final moments with a try.

In reality, the score was as much about Italian lethargy as the scrum-half’s own alertness, but the 17-10 interval scoreline it created offered a balanced account of proceedings to this point. Henderson punched a modest hole in the middle of the Italian 22, and as cover failed to materialise, Blair fired through from the back of the breakdown to inflict due punishment.