TIPS HOGG TO PROVIDE SPARKS

‘At the end of the day, you are out there on the pitch to entertain the crowd and score points for your country and Hogg seems a determined character. ‘What he could benefit from, though, is better communication with his wingers. That can help you going forward because, between the three of you, you can seek out the gaps and build an attack rather than trying to do it all on your own.’ Campese has managed to catch some of the Six Nations action so far on television and he believes Scotland are heading in the right direction under Vern Cotter. ‘Cotter seems to have come in and made his mark, the Scots are certainly playing better rugby than they have in the last few years,’ he continued. ‘They have been an up and down team because they have been chopping and changing coaches and such like, but Scottish Rugby obviously have faith in Cotter and you can see that he is building for the future. ‘Some people question why he had brought some of the newer and younger players into training squads when they were unlikely to be involved in the Six Nations, but he is thinking more longer term with the World Cup coming up. ‘In international rugby now, you need to have a wider pool of players of around 40 who are all confident to come in at that level because you will suffer injuries and things like that. ‘By getting fringe players in and around the set-up now, it will mean that they are good to go in the future rather than being caught cold.’ Of course, both Scotland and Italy go into this afternoon’s match with two losses from two, but Campese believes the home side will come out on top. ‘I think the Scots will be tough to beat at home and they are now scoring tries, which they were not doing a couple of years back,’ he concluded.