MIKE BLAIR knows what it takes to beat Italy, but he also knows how it feels to lose to the Italians.

The former scrum-half, who captained the national team, was on the winning side against the Italians seven times, but also fell to defeat on four occasions.

Of those eleven matches, there are few that had quite as much pressure on them as Scotland’s clash in Rome on Saturday, with there being little argument this is a must-win game for Gregor Townsend’s men.

Blair may have spent over a decade in the national team but these days, he is on the sidelines as assistant coach to Townsend.

the 38-year-old knows just how fine the margins are in international rugby and this is why things like getting off to a bad start, something Scotland have been notorious for in the past, can be fatal.

This Six Nations has seen the Scots come out of the block much quicker than they have previously and while that has been a positive improvement, it has not prevented them falling to defeat in both their opening fixtures.

However, on Saturday, with the Scots going in as favourites against Italy, getting on top of their opponents in the opening minutes will, believes Blair, be vital.

“Italy will want to get their crowd behind them, so they’ll be throwing everything at starting really well,” the former Glasgow and Edinburgh player said.

“On the back of our good starts against England and Ireland, it’s important that we do the same against Italy – quieten the crowd a little bit, hold on to the ball and put pressure on them.”

Blair is struggling to put his finger on what exactly has been the difference in recent games for his side to have started so strongly but, he says, is is most likely a combination of things.

“I don’t know (what we’ve done better)” he said.

“We’ve held on to the ball more. The Ireland game, we held on to the ball for a good two or three minutes, got a penalty and put ourselves ahead.

“The England game, we had a good kick-off, put them under lots of pressure. So sometimes things just lean towards you a little bit.

“But we have talked about faster starts a lot, as we did when things weren’t going that well.

“There seems to be a good composure about the group, perhaps holding onto the ball a little bit more – not trying the offloads – or being a little bit more structured early in the game. That seemed to work for us in the last couple of weeks.

“There are always conversations how to do better. Ultimately, the players will take responsibility for how they’ve reacted. They’re the ones dealing with the game situations, making the decisions on the ball.

“I hope that continues because good starts really lift the spirits and confidence going forward.”

The major factor in both of Scotland’s losses this tournament has been unforced errors, most notably two from captain Stuart Hogg which saw the full-back drop the ball inches from scoring a certain try against Ireland before a mistake gave England the opportunity to score the only try of the game the following week.

However, Hogg scored an impressive try for his club side, Exeter, at the weekend and Blair is in no doubt that the 27-year-old will not let his errors affect him for the rest of this Six Nations campaign.

“I know there’s been a couple of incidents and a lot of has been made of the one against England,” he said.

“But I genuinely can’t see what he could have done (any differently).

“It was really clever play from England in the conditions.

“Some of it we didn’t deal with perfectly but I don’t think there was much he [Hogg] could have done there in that scenario.”

“You saw him get that score for Exeter at the weekend, a big smile on his face as he put it down with two hands.

“Hoggy’s good at that, making fun of himself. He made an error but that won’t happen again.”