Sione Tuipulotu says Italy adapted better than Scotland and concedes that lessons aren't being learned from the past
The Scotland captain was visibly frustrated with his side’s poor start to the 2026 Six Nations campaign.
After Scotland’s 18-15 defeat to Italy in the Rome rain, captain Sione Tuipulotu has conceded that his side aren’t learning lessons from past experiences.
Both Scotland’s performance and the weather could be described as ‘dreich’ in Italy’s capital, as the heavens opened above the Stadio Olimpico. While legendary Azzuri captain, Sergio Parisse described the conditions as ‘the second worst’ he’s ever seen in his homeland, it was the Italians who coped better in the rain.
In a match that required tactical nous over handling ability, Italy played the conditions, while the Scots tried to play rugby. Finn Russell kicked for touch constantly even though the lineouts were poor, the kicks were high in the air rather than in Italy’s territory and countless needless penalties were given away despite the opponents being prepared to clear the ball anyway.
It’s a familiar tale that the Scottish side aren’t able to adapt when things aren’t going their way, which goes back to their defeat to Ireland back in the 2023 Rugby World Cup. However, captain Tuipulotu believes they did show resilience in the Italy defeat but in the end just gave themselves ‘too much to do’ after several needless errors.
Scotland showed ‘resilience’ but were undone by ‘errors’
When asked if he believes Scotland weren’t able to learn from previous experiences in his post-match press conference, the captain responded: “no, there were times out there we had to show resilience, but it's showing resilience and then not having the errors.
“I think that first 20 minutes is probably when the conditions were at their best in terms of playing rugby and they were able to capitalise on that first 20 minutes with possession. In those conditions, points are hard to come by and we gave ourselves too much to do at the end.
“That part's frustrating because for the rest of the game I thought we defended quite well but for that first 20 minutes we can't let them score that easily and give ourselves too much to do in the conditions.”
Italy loss ‘a tough pill to swallow’
He continued: “it's a setback, definitely. You lose a game in this competition and it's hard to come back and win it, but teams have done it before, and to be honest, to talk about winning the competition is not something that I want to get up here and do at the moment.
“I'm really frustrated that we've come here and lost this game because, we come here to win and I thought we were really well-prepared, but ultimately we just didn't execute out there in the conditions. We're gutted in there [the dressing room].
“Like I said, we prepared really well. Some of the best couple of weeks of preparation that I've had in the Scotland team, but we didn't transfer it onto the field and we didn't adjust to the conditions well enough and now we’re on the losing side. It's a tough pill to swallow and we're going to have to tackle that over the next couple of days.”