This was yet another match where Scottish blunders threw away victory, though it was not until 4½ minutes into injury time that Italy found the spirit to launch one final onslaught and feed the ball out to Andrea Marcato, who showed nerves of steel in calmly slotting the drop goal that was all that separated the teams when the final whistle went a few seconds later.

The Italian crowd rose in ecstasy, at last they had seen a victory under Nick Mallett, their South African coach, who admitted afterwards that there had been the odd quiet tear such was the emotion of the occasion for him. There were plenty more tears in the Scottish camp as well, though at the opposite end of the emotional scale. Disappointment, frustration and disbelief were mixed in roughly equal measures, and though everybody has to take their share of the blame, Dan Parks, the fly half called in on Friday when injury forced Frank Hadden, the head coach, to shuffle the side, will have to face another barrage of criticism because it was his mistakes that undid his side.

In the opening exchanges, he seemed barely capable of finding his own team when he tried to pass the ball down the line, the official match statistics credit him with seven errors, almost half the Scotland total, and it was no surprise that his wayward pass led to his team conceding the opening try.

Instead of its intended target, the ball bounced into the hands of Kaine Robertson, the Italy wing, whose kick and chase forced Chris Paterson, the Scotland wing, to concede a scrum five. Two scrums and a penalty later, the Scots were under their posts, Nigel Owens, the referee, giving Italy a penalty try when the scrum collapsed. The only person who had any cause to feel aggrieved at the decision was Sergio Parisse, the Italy captain, who had got the ball over the line anyway and so was denied his first try against Scotland.

It was a hammer blow, but Scotland recovered, despite the reshuffle after Simon Danielli was carried off on a stretcher after damaging an ankle. Slowly they got a grip on the game, though as always the tries came only after long, long periods of build-up. In the end, they did level the scores, Allister Hogg, the flanker, latching on to the inside flip from Scott MacLeod to cross after Graeme Morrison had slipped with the line open.

The next period was all Scotland but left the scores still tied with Parks adding a penalty for Scotland while Marcato landed one for his team.

Just before the break, however, the Scots seemed to have taken a decisive grip on the match when the long build-up with forwards and backs hammering at the Italian defence reaped its reward as Mike Blair spotted a gap and hared through to the line.

All they had to do was keep playing the way that had worked in the second quarter, test Italy round the fringes of the ruck, then force them to run across the field to test them again. But for some reason they changed, to a bizarre mixture of caution and exuberance, that never posed the same level of threat. Even Hadden had to admit that he was not sure what was going on, certainly nothing like the tactics he had spoken to the players about.

“What was frustrating was that we identified the edge of the ruck as an area we could exploit and when we were working hard on that we could make a lot of progress. It was only when we changed from that that we had one or two difficulties,” he said.

For all that, Italy were on the ropes and it looked as though there was only one team in the game until Parks tried to float the ball out to his backs, but found only Parisse who galloped half the length of the field before throwing the ball inside more in hope than aimed at anybody, but there was Gonzalo Canale, the centre, who had blown try chances against Wales and France, read to make amends, collecting the ball and racing under the posts.

“If you watch it again, there was a big opportunity round the ruck that could easily have been exploited, but the game is not an exact science, it is played at an extremely fast tempo and people have to make decisions on the hoof. I am confident that this extremely young side will make better and better decisions as the years go on. Credit to Parrisse, a top-quality player, for taking a huge gamble and picking the interception out of the air. Those are the margins by which games are won and lost.”

Suddenly, Italy were back in the game and looking the more likely to score. An exchange of penalties left the scores tied going into injury time, but Marcato had the final word and the Roman celebrations could begin.

Scorers: Italy: penalty try (15min), Canale (62). Conversions: Marcato 2. Penalty goals: Marcato (40). Dropped goal: Marcato (80+4). Scotland: Tries: Hogg (23), Blair (40+4). Conversions: Paterson 2. Penalty goals: Parks (28), Paterson (77).

Scoring sequence (Italy first): 7-0, 7-7, 7-10, 10-10, 10-17 (half time), 17-17, 20-17, 20-20, 23-20.

Italy: A Marcato (Treviso), K Robertson (Viadana), G Canale (Clermont-Auvergne), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Français), E Galon (Cariparma), A Masi (Biarritz, rep: P Travagli, Cariparma, 63), S Picone (Treviso, rep: E Patrizio, Petrarca Padua, 66); A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro Paris, rep: S Perugini, Stade Toulouse, 58), L Ghiraldini (Calvisano, rep: F Ongaro, Saracens, 71), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester, rep: C Nieto, Gloucester, 59), C A Del Fava (Ulster, rep: J Erasmus, Viadana, 47-54), M Bortolami (Gloucester), J Sole (Viadana), A Zanni (Calvisano), S Parisse (Stade Français).

Scotland: H Southwell (Edinburgh); S Danielli (Ulster, rep: A Henderson, Glasgow, 7), S Webster (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow), C Paterson (Gloucester); D Parks (Glasgow), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh, rep: A Dickinson, Gloucester, 58), F Thomson (Glasgow, rep: S Lawson, Sale Sharks, 53), E Murray (Northampton, rep: C Smith, Edinburgh, 59), N Hines (Perpignan), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets, rep: J White, Sale Sharks, 53), A Strokosch (Gloucester), A Hogg (Edinburgh, rep: K Brown, Glasgow, 74), S Taylor (Stade Français).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).

Attendance: 32,000