Scotland finally ended their nine-match losing run in the Six Nations with a vitally important victory at Stadio Olimpico.

In putting away Italy in Rome, they have re-ignited their campaign with two very winnable matches to come.

Vern Cotter's men were only briefly behind in an entertaining contest, and scored two well-worked tried in the opening quarter through flankers John Barclay and John Hardie.

With Man of the Match Greig Laidlaw in fine form with the boot, the Scots looked assured of the win.

You never write off an Azzuri side however, especially at home, and they duly responded with a fine score from hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini before the break to reduce the margin to seven points.

Much like the Samoa game in the World Cup, Scotland were now in an unfamiliar winning position and doubts were raised if they could abandon their enterprising game plan in favour of a more streetwise approach to consolidate their lead and keep the scoreboard ticking over to secure a badly needed victory.

Pleasingly however, the Scots were still able to show their attacking intent through the likes of centre pairing Duncan Taylor and Mark Bennett who fed off Finn Russell's wonderfully accurate long passes, whilst skipper Laidlaw duly kicked virtually anything referee Jaco Peyper awarded them in the Italian half.

Key to that penalty count was Scotland's efforts at the scrum.

Time after time the Scotland eight rumbled over Italian ball and thanks to the likes of tighthead WP Nel and the Gray brothers, Scotland enjoyed the sort of set-piece dominance usually reserved for the likes of England or Wales in this competition.

Italy did manage another try in the second half through second row Marco Fuser when Russell was in the sin bin, but despite that effort and Kelly Haimona's points from the kicking tee, this always felt like it was going to be Scotland's afternoon.

This was further highlighted on 78 minutes when, instead of merely keeping the ball tight within the forwards to protect the winning margin, the Scots threw the ball wide and after Stuart Hogg's deft off-load, Tommy Seymour ran in under the posts to put some added gloss on the winning margin.

Seymour's try, his second in as many games, caused the most unlikely event to occur in the Scotland management box, high in the stands - a smile crept onto head coach Vern Cotter's face, only for a fleeting second however, as the Kiwi coach realised he was about to enjoy his first-ever Six Nations win after almost two years in the job.

"I'm very happy", the Scotland coach admitted to the press in the aftermath of Scotland's first Six Nations victory in over two years.

"We started well, scoring two tries and I thought we kept the ball and put speed and tempo onto the game", he continued in his assessment on the game which moves Scotland above Italy and Ireland into fourth place in the Six Nations table with two rounds to play.

When asked about his side's efforts in delivering a badly-needed win in Rome, Cotter added: "Credit to these boys because they stepped up and got themselves through what was a challenging second half and scored another try rather than worry about conceding further."

Skipper Laidlaw will deservedly take most of the credit for this win, but the likes of first-half try-scorers Barclay and Hardie also deserve praise for the way they continually got themselves back on their feet to make crucial tacklers at key stages in the contest when the Azzuri threatened to score again.

Prop WP Nel may have blotted his copybook with a needless yellow card in the second half, as did stand-off Russell, but it was yet another barnstorming display from the adopted Scot and, along with substitute Josh Strauss, who remarkably featured in the second half less than 48 hours after completing 80 minutes for Glasgow Warriors in Newport, highlights that there are merits to the controversial three-year residency rule in International rugby.

This victory in Rome has been a long time in the making of course, and Scotland now need to back this up with another win over a physical yet incoherent French side at Murrayfield in two weeks' time.

Scotland had been written off by many after the opening two rounds, particularly by those who felt that they would kick on from the promising autumn form in which they narrowly missed out on the World Cup semi-finals, yet many merely saw the results and not the performances of the defeats to England and Wales and predicted another whitewash for Vern Cotter's side.

Despite the naysayers the signs were there for all to see in the opening two rounds, especially in Cardiff, that this was a young and enterprising Scotland team who just needed a win in the tournament to ignite their campaign, and then look to kick on towards their tour of Japan in the summer.

With one or two exceptions, this side is young enough to stay together for at least one World Cup cycle and Scotland must now harness that winning feeling and register another win against France, a team that they haven't defeated in ten years despite coming close on numerous occasions.

Les Bleus have been a shadow of their former selves of late, despite winning their first two matches, but there were signs that the France of old is ready to make a return in the closing stages of their woeful performance in Cardiff on Friday night, with the likes of Francois Trinh-Duc, Gael Fickou and Sebastien Bezy likely to start against the Scots in what now promises to be an almighty clash in fourteen day's time.

Until then, Cotter and his men can feel relived and enthused by their victory in Rome and can now look at putting a winning run together rather than be constantly reminded of their losing run.