Scotland v Italy: Teams

Scotland suffered a late setback ahead of their crunch RBS Six Nations match against Italy after wing Max Evans was ruled out with an ankle injury.

Nikki Walker goes straight into the starting XV as his replacement in a match Andy Robinson's side need to win in order to avoid the wooden spoon.

Robinson received a boost earlier in the week, though, after Kelly Brown was cleared to play at Murrayfield.

Brown takes the No.8 jersey despite the Saracens forward having been carried off on a stretcher in the defeat to England at Twickenham.

As a result Robinson has made just the one change, with Geoff Cross replacing Moray Low in the front row.

Low, who suffered a torrid time against England, drops out the squad altogether with Euan Murray returning on the bench.

Attitude

Robinson knows that his side must build on their performance in a losing cause at Twickenham, and has called on his players to maintain those lofty standards for the full 80 minutes against the Italians.

"I've been really pleased with the attitude that has been shown and the way we've been looking to improve our game," he said.

"Certainly in some parts we've done that, but we haven't been able to play for a whole 80 minutes.

"We've been severely punished for the mistakes that we've made and we've made a lot of errors inside our third.

"Going into this game it's about an 80-minute performance, every element of our performance, every set-piece - it's vital that we win it."

However, Scotland have lost three of their last four Six Nations meetings with Italy, who will enter the match on a high following their 22-21 defeat of France in Rome last Saturday.

Azzurri coach Nick Mallett has made six changes to that line-up, with Alberto Sgarbi and Kris Burton added to the backline in place of Gonzalo Garcia and Luciano Orquera.

In the pack, Paul Derbyshire, Quintin Geldenhuys, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Salvatore Perugini are all included.

Scotland: 15 C Paterson (Edinburgh), 14 N Walker (Ospreys), 13 J Ansbro (Northampton), 12 S Lamont (Scarlets), 11 S Danielli (Ulster), 10 R Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), 9 R Lawson (Gloucester), 1 A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), 2 R Ford (Edinburgh), 3 G Cross, 4 R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), 5 A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors, captain), 6 N Hines (Leinster), 7 J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 8 K Brown (Saracens).
Replacements: 16 S Lawson (Gloucester), 17 E Murray (Newcastle), 18 R Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), 19 A Strokosch (Gloucester), 20 M Blair (Edinburgh), 21 D Parks (Cardiff Blues), 22 N De Luca (Edinburgh).

Italy: 15 A Masi (Racing Metro), 14 T Benvenuti (Treviso), 13 G Canale (Clermont Auvergne), 12 A Sgarbi (Treviso), 11 Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais), 10 K Burton (Treviso), 9 F Semenzato (Treviso), 1 S Perugini (Aironi), 2 L Ghiraldini (Treviso), 3 M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), 4 C Del Fava (Aironi), 5 Q Geldenhuys (Aironi), 6 A Zanni (Treviso), 7 P Derbyshire (Treviso), 8 S Parisse (Stade Francais).
Replacements: 16 C Festuccia (Racing Metro), 17 A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro), 18 V Bernabo (Treviso), 19 R Barbieri (Treviso), 20 P Canavosio (Aironi), 21 L Orquera (Brive), 22 L McLean (Treviso).