The public expects against Italy, and a pressure game comes next Saturday. But if I was Stuart Reid I wouldn't be such a happy bunny after the team announcements. Neither in the full side nor the A team, Reid finds himself going from a position as Reds' captain in the trial to cap without portfolio.

Now, Reid may have his limitations, but there's no way to see past the fact that he is one of Scotland's best driving forwards and yet there is no berth for him.

At No.8 is Adam Roxburgh, and that alone tells you a story. Some have suggested that this is a heavy duty Scotland team. Not a bit of it. Roxburgh is an out-and-out runner with the ball in hand, and Scotland's game will be based on speed. Speed to breakdown, speed in support of the ball, and crucially speed in getting the ball released from when the Italians lie on it and cheat like crazy? Italians, cheat? You bet they will, and the Scots have to act as the Aussies or South Africans might and the All Blacks definitely would, and that is by being very physical when bodies are on the deck.

It's not easy to be brave and aggressive on foreign soil, but unless the Scots stamp their authority on proceedings and remind the Italians that lying on the ball, or coming in off-side, or stopping its progress by hand, isn't really part and parcel of the modern game, then they will find it hard to recycle the ball.

But of greater importance in a team so full of runners, from George ''Grumpy'' Graham in the front row to Roxburgh, and then Alan Tait and Tony Stanger in the back division, is on how to figure out a game plan where speed and continuity are helped.

The Italians will be desperate to keep the ball in hand when they have it, but they will kill it when they don't.

Scotland want mayhem, and the only place in rugby to accelerate a match is at a lineout, and if you can pick your own ball boys you can make them chase the balls out of play and then get them back in mucho pronto, but little Italian ball boys might just not be so eager.

The Scots, when you look at it, have a hooker who can run, and he might well be advised to run after kicks to touch by the Italians so that the ball can be put back into play as quickly as possible.

The whole key to the game, of course, is whether Scotland can win the ball, and I have absolutely no doubt that Scott Murray and Doddie Weir can become as potent a lineout force as any country will be able to field in Britain. Bulloch, to Murray to Weir is a vital link against Italy, as is how Gary Armstrong can worry around the fringes, possibly from Adam Roxburgh's pick ups from the base of the scrum, and then secondary linking by Rob Wainwright and Simon Holmes.

A trip to Treviso, where once it might have been seen as an easy jaunt, is incredibly hard. People just do not understand how tough this game is going to be.

Italy want to be recognised as a truly great European rugby nation. They have beaten Ireland three times in a row. They have some big blokes, and if you watch the video of them demolishing Ireland, as the Scotland squad were forced to do on Wednesday where they viewed a condensed game analysis in the bowels of Murrayfield, then you will have seen, as they did, that the Italians made inroads in the midfield, charged through Ireland in mauls and rucks, and built up enough of a head of steam to make them hungry enough to eat a few bowls of pasta.

Is winning everything? You bet it is. To play gloriously and come away with no result from the Venetian area is practically unthinkable in the light of what happened against South Africa and Australia before Christmas.

There will be more than a little nerves as the Scots see this game creep up on them. But the beauty is that Scotland, with 12 Anglos in the squad, have a group of men who are more used to pressure than before and the nerves, this time, can only be good in the Italian bolognese.

Do I think Scotland will win? Yes, but I tell you, this is going to be some scrap, with some hairy moments, and the Scots, even on foreign soil, will have to be rough to win. Very rough.