For Scotland it has been a long 12 days since Cardiff. "I haven't enjoyed the break at all," Johnnie Beattie says. "It meant going away and thinking about the game, analysing and over-analysing what went wrong in that last 10 minutes." The stitches on Thom Evans's neck and bruises on Chris Paterson's back are clearly not the only scars that the 31–24 defeat to Wales left on the squad.

"To be honest you can think about it all too much," Beattie continues. "We just didn't control the last 10 minutes as we should have." After the match Andy Robinson spoke eloquently about how proud his players and their fans should be about the Scottish performance. Beattie does not buy into that. "Anyone who looks back at the championship table in five years' time will only see that we took zero points from a game we were well and truly capable of winning," he points out, "As a team we're not judged by performance. It comes down to where we finish in that table. That's just the way it is."

That shows how expectations in the Scotland squad have risen since Robinson became coach, a change which bodes badly for the Italians on Saturday. "I think everyone is just looking forward to getting out and playing again," Beattie says. "I am gagging to get to Rome." There the No8 and his team-mates will face opponents who have won three of the last five matches between the sides. Word has reached the Scottish camp that the Italians have been speaking out about how they are specifically targeting this game. It is shaping up to be a brutal, unforgiving match.

"The Italians make it really hard to get into their half of the pitch because they kick pretty much everything," Beattie says, "and they flood the pitch full of defenders and try and hunt you down in your own half. We've just got to be as attritional and as physical as we can at the breakdown."

Even the absence of the great Sergio Parisse does not seem to have weakened the Azzurri's back row all that much. "Alessandro Zanni has come in and been exceptional," Beattie says, "and with Mauro Bergamasco you always know they have that kind of kamikaze physical threat. Josh Sole is a big, physical fella as well. So it really is a good unit. We're going to have to front up physically."

Beattie talks with natural authority. His Scotland career is only nine caps old, and he has only become a regular since Robinson took over last summer. Together with his Glasgow team-mates John Barclay and Kelly Brown, Beattie has become part of a back-row unit that is the heart of the national team. Brown has already been signed up by Saracens, and Beattie's performances at No8 have been attracting a lot of attention from other clubs.

He and Barclay were both approached by a team from England's Premiership, and a trio of French clubs have also made offers. But Beattie has settled on staying in Scotland. "I am a Glasgow boy and love playing for Glasgow every opportunity I get," he says." I owe it to myself and people who come to watch that I give more performances to Glasgow and help us get back up to the top of the league." Judging from the way he talks about his commitments to playing in Scotland, Beattie is clearly part of a new generation of players who believe that something worth being part of is being built north of the border.

If he is right, then some day people may finally stop asking Beattie about his father. "My dad?" he says. "Yeah, he played a bit. A long time ago." A bit? John Beattie was a two-time tourist with the Lions and won 25 caps for his country as a barnstorming No8. These days he is a commentator for the BBC, a set-up which Johnnie reckons troubles his dad a lot more than it does him.

If John Beattie is reading this, he will be wincing. "I do also worry every time I see a report that says 'Johnnie Beattie, son of the Scotland back-row, Lions, whatever' because that doesn't help him," Beattie Sr told the Scotsman recently. "It raises expectations, which can be hugely damaging to a young person trying to find their way in sport."

He should stop worrying. Beattie Jr turned 24 on the very day that he starred in Scotland's 9-8 win over Australia last November. It was a coming of age for the player and the team.