FOR most of us, Italy in the spring is nothing more than a romantic holiday idea. For both Scottish rugby teams their ambitions for the season pretty much depend on how they cope with twin Italian challenges.
Edinburgh are first up when they really need not just a win but a try bonus point as well against Zebre at BT Murrayfield on Friday, but the crucial Italian showdown is with Glasgow who face Italian sides in three of their final five games – including their game in hand – and could do with 15 points from the triple-header.
It all starts for them against Benetton Treviso on Saturday, and if they need any warning that taking on the league's basement club is not going to be as simple and straightforward as they might hope, then they have only to wheel out the recording of the home game to remind them.
That was a match where they were trailing at half time, got a doing in the scrums and it was only a solitary Adam Ashe try that allowed them to escape with a 13-6 win. All that at Scotstoun.
This weekend, not only are they playing in Italy but the Italians have since revamped their coaching set up, bringing in Kieran Crowley, the experienced former Canada coach and All Black full back, to head the team. While they are still struggling, they have won two of their last three home matches and Munster beat them by only three points in their last outing at the Stadio Monigo.
Against that, Glasgow Warriors are on a run of five wins, including last weekend's at home to Ulster but the players also know that while there has been plenty of encouraging signs, there have also been too many sloppy periods.
"We started off poorly and are disappointed at that," said Jonny Gray, the club captain of their last match. "It took us till last ten minutes of first half to get going. That was not good enough but we showed great character to come back.
"What we have to look at is our poor start as that and could cost us in the future. We will look at it and address it. We never give up – that is the culture at Glasgow, we push that hard.
"Treviso games have been close. Some players who took part in the Scotland v Italy game will be involved and you have to take a look at their scrum and line out of Treviso, they are very physical up front and have caused teams real problems at home."
After that Glasgow head into a training camp in Italy before travelling across the country to take on Zebre in Parma the following Friday in the game that got shunted back after the fixtures were disrupted by the Paris terrors attacks last year.
After that they will have caught up their game in hand and if they have picked up 10 points in the process – and with the home tie against Zebre the penultimate game of the season – they will be in a strong position for the play-offs.
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