Scotland’s Alasdair Dickinson criticises Irish referee George Clancy

Scotland 10 Italy 22

Scotland slumped to their third defeat of this year’s RBS 6 Nations after going down 22-19 to Italy, leaving them staring at the ignominy of a fourth wooden spoon in 11 years. But, while Dickinson admitted the Dark Blues “should have stopped” the driving mauls Italy used to devastating effect as they stormed back to win with a last-gasp penalty try, the Edinburgh forward insisted Clancy did nothing to help them at the scrum.

The set-piece duel was held up time and again in the first half as the official lectured both sides on their engage method before finally scolding the front-rowers for showing a “terrible attitude”.

But Dickinson admitted he had no idea what the referee’s issue was. The 31-year-old said: “I think he was making a mountain out of a molehill at times.

“I better stay politically correct with the media or I’ll get in trouble — but when he let us scrum, we scrummed really well and got penalties. It was just frustrating that it seemed to take an age to set up.

Saturday’s defeat was undoubtedly a step back after some significant strides forward under new head coach Vern Cotter. But the reality of the situation is that Scotland have now lost all three of their matches this year following the 15-8 defeat to France in Paris and the narrow 26-23 reverse at home to Wales a fortnight ago.