Italy 10 Scotland 13

Frank Hadden says his back-line will soon start hitting their stride and making Scotland a genuine threat on the world scene.

The former Edinburgh coach has presided over Scotland's most impressive Six Nations Championship campaign this millennium, less than a year after taking charge of what was a much-maligned squad.

An opening-weekend victory over France at Murrayfield was followed by success in Edinburgh against world champions England.

Defeats at the hands of Wales in Cardiff, when Scott Murray was dismissed in the first half, followed by a narrow loss to Ireland in Dublin, questioned Scotland's ability to perform away from home but on Saturday they dug deep to grind out a victory, their first success on the road since 2002.

Chris Paterson was the hero, scoring a try in the first half and then holding his nerve to kick the decisive penalty with little more than two minutes remaining.

It was a triumph which could have been more comfortable had Scotland not made so many handling errors, mistakes which allowed the improving Azzurri back into the game.

Indeed, the first half against France apart, Scotland have struggled to produce any fluency in the backs, who - under the tutelage of 1997 British Lion Alan Tait - have offered a defensive line which is the equal of any in the world on form.

Hadden, a stand-off as a player, is in no doubt that his back-line has the talent to prosper and will soon start showing it.

He said: "People think that, when you make handling errors, you should stop handling but the fact is we haven't done too much attacking over the past few weeks.

"There is a lot more to come from our attacking game and we've really only scratched the surface with it. There won't be a problem when we have had time to work on it in training but, more importantly, in a match."

Hadden enjoyed only modest success with Edinburgh and, in five Six Nations matches, has surpassed anything he achieved with the Gunners.

The former PE teacher says challenging for the title was never in his thoughts before the championship and announced himself content with the progress made, a year on from a Six Nations campaign under Australian Matt Williams in which Scotland managed only a turgid home win over Italy.

The aim is to develop the back play in South Africa this summer before the autumn internationals, the 2007 Six Nations and then the World Cup in France.

Hadden said: "I'm quite comfortable with where we are in terms of the progress we wanted to make. There's a launch pad for the future."

He believes Saturday's win was vital, demonstrating that his side can dig deep for a victory even without the backing of the Murrayfield crowds, who have been enthused by the Hadden revolution.