Scotland's season got off to a losing start yesterday with a 27-3 defeat by Italy in Avezzano, L'Aquila.
The Scots travelled early on Saturday with two new caps in the starting XV, Hannah Sloan and Mhairi Grieve, and four more new faces looking to make an impact from the bench.
The last time the national team were in Italy was a RBS 6 Nations match earlier in the year. They were quickly blown away by a buoyant home side on that occasion and as a result head coach Jules Maxton will have been keen for her charges to get off to a better start this time around.
The Scots would manage that, at least, but an enterprising start to the match was undone when Italy winger Michela Sillari managed to go over for the opening try in the 14th minute.
However, six minutes later Scotland stand-off Lisa Martin, of Murrayfield Wanderers, got the visitors on the scoreboard and back into things with a penalty.
The Italians then kicked a penalty of their own in the 28th minute through stand-off Beatrice Rigoni and five minutes before the break they increased their advantage to 15-3 after centre Maria Grazia Cioffi went over for a score converted by Rigoni.
That was the ways things were at the interval and for the start of the second half Maxton decided to make three changes. Harriet Cumber came on to make her debut on the wing in place of Sloan, Christianne Fahey also made her debut in the back-row in place of Rachael Cook and Sarah Quick came on at hooker for Lana Skeldon.
The Italians then incurred a yellow card, but Scotland could not use the extra player to their advantage and with 13 minutes to go winger Maria Magatti scored the hosts' second try to put the result in little doubt.
A second try by the same player right on full-time was converted by Rigoni to put the icing on the cake, while Scotland also managed to get Claire Bain and Eilidh Sinclair off the bench for debuts.
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