There is a sign in the corner of the Loftus Versfeld ground that advertises the services of the Lazarus Motor Company, so at least they knew who to phone for a lift back to their team hotel.

It would understate Scotland's triumph here to call it a last-gasp win, for in truth they were flat out on the mortuary slab and with the death certificate just waiting to be signed before they somehow contrived to snatch victory from the gaping jaws of defeat.

The Scots were not exactly laughing at the end, but there was a comic dimension to how they did it.

As the scoreboard clock clicked past the 80-minute mark, they still trailed by six points, and the stadium screens flashed pictures of Italians on the replacement bench beginning their handshakes and celebrations.

All Italy needed was a break in play for victory to be confirmed – but the break they got certainly wasn't the one they wanted.

At a ruck near the Italy 22, one of the Azzurri players failed to roll away, and Welsh referee Leighton Hughes blew for a penalty to Scotland. Henry Pyrgos darted off with the ball, then popped up at the next ruck to pop it out again. It was collected by Al Strokosch, the blindside flanker who had been pressed into doing a shift on the other side of the scrum due to injuries.

Strokosch is a fine fellow, but nobody's idea of a flying finisher. But the 30-year-old took wings over the 20 yards he had to cover to get to the line, splitting the Italy defence as he went.

It was only his second try in 35 Scotland outings, but if he takes his scoring rate into the stratosphere for the rest of his career he will never score a more important one than this.

Greig Laidlaw still had to clip over the conversion, but the little Borderer could scarcely have looked cooler had he been licking a cucumber iced lolly.

He placed the ball carefully, took a few steps back and hammered it straight between the sticks. And victory belonged to Scotland.

Deservedly? Only just. One or two Scottish players suggested that Italy would have been worthy winners, but that was probably pushing self-reproach too far.

Scotland were not remotely as good as they had been in their loss to South Africa in Nelspruit a week earlier, but they were not exactly awful either.

They butchered a couple of chances and they let in Italy for a woefully soft score, but they stuck to their tasks to the end – and for a few precious seconds beyond.

Italy were livid about the finish, accusing the referee of a series of questionable decisions, but there was a distinct impression before then that they had enjoyed the better side of Hughes.

Certainly, they got away with a lot at scrum time, where their admitted advantage was exaggerated by all manner of jiggery-pokery. The penalties they won at the set piece looked more like clever pieces of deception than overwhelming power.

Still, it is not exactly a secret that Italy will attack you in the scrum. Neither, for that matter, is it an unconscionable novelty that they make the contest for the ball on the floor an unholy mess.

Italy, with 10 changes to the side that had produced such a feeble display against Samoa last weekend, played on that predictably narrow front, and Scotland struggled to find a way to counter it.

And yet, there were many reasons to admire Scotland as well. Beyond the fact they kept their collective will to fight to the very end, they produced some lovely individual cameos.

Matt Scott had already set his bar high on this tour, but he cleared it with something to spare. Dave Denton, his Edinburgh colleague, also announced his return to something close to the form he produced in his sensational debut season.

Scott's finest moment was in the sixth minute when, after a trademark blast through the middle by Denton, he collected the ball and danced past three Italian defenders for the first of Scotland's three tries.

It would have been a splendid start for Scotland had Italy not produced a splendid start of their own five minutes earlier when debutant winger Leonardo Sarto took advantage of a moment of defensive confusion between Tom Heathcote and Tommy Seymour and hurtled through the gap where one of them should probably have been.

Nobody is ever going to give Italy any lessons in defensive bungles, though, and they duly produced one of their own in the 16th minute when Gio Venditti tried to run possession from behind his own line, turned it over three yards later, and allowed Laidlaw to feed out the ball for Sean Lamont to score.

Italy collected, and probably deserved, a penalty try in the 31st minute after Hughes decided the Scottish scrum had caved in once too often.

An exchange of penalties between Laidlaw and Alberto Di Bernardo moved things on to 20-20 at the break, but Laidlaw clipped over another just after the interval to put Scotland in front again.

Then, though, the Italian power game became the dominant feature of the match.

It won them great dollops of territory and a few penalty chances, Di Bernardo knocking over three to put them ahead 29-23 as the game entered its final passage.

Though Scotland huffed and puffed, it all looked to be in vain as the seconds ticked away. But what do they say about playing to the final whistle?

It spoke volumes about the Scotland team that, at the end of 80 minutes, and at the end of 10 months of rugby, they were still able to do that.