Scotland have been forced into a late reshuffle ahead of their trip to Rome for tomorrow's final Six Nations Championship match against Italy after Nikki Walker was forced to withdraw because of an ankle injury which flared up in training yesterday.

Two players at either end of the experience scale, Andy Henderson of Glasgow Warriors, who joined the 50-cap club earlier in the campaign and Ben Cairns, Edinburgh's uncapped utility back, have been called into the squad.

However, a final decision on the make-up of the starting XV will not be made until later today with another possible option being to shift Chris Paterson to the wing and bring Dan Parks back in at stand-off as happened midway through the first half against England last Saturday.

While Frank Hadden, the chief coach, ponders his threequarters options, George Graham, the forwards coach, believes the way his pack neutralised two of the world's best scrummagers at Murrayfield last week has given his men the confidence to go to Rome and take on the formidable Italians.

Graham admits that the team management has had some difficulty getting the overall balance of the pack right in this Six Nations Championship campaign, but felt the way the front-row in particular refused to be dominated by Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery was inspirational.

"I personally think we played against the best scrummage in the championship last week and Euan Murray did particularly well against Sheridan, who is one of the best in the world, while Allan Jacobsen also did a great job against Vickery," said Graham.

"The Italians did very well against England as well but Sheridan didn't play in that match and I don't think Vickery played much of it either."

In saying so, Graham stressed that he has the highest regard for Andrea Lo Cicero, a player he describes as "a friend as well as a foe" and Martin Castrogiovanni, who will confront the Scottish props this week. He expects it to be a fearsome battle.

That is why 13 forwards and just two replacement backs have been chosen for a game that will decide which country picks up the wooden spoon this season, but the Calcutta Cup win has given the visitors confidence.

So, too, has the return of a player who Graham regards as something of an eccentric, but also as one of the finest that Scotland has ever produced. "Simon Taylor was a wee bit apprehensive when he came back into the squad last week but I would say he is one of the best players Scotland has ever had," Graham explained.

"He can be a bit strange to deal with because sometimes you think he doesn't pay attention or is not interested in what's going on at training, but he never lets you down. He is what I would describe as a Test animal."

Graham admitted that before Taylor's return from a thumb injury, the management had been having some difficulty working out their best combinations as they dealt with what looked to be an unusual embarrassment of riches.

"In the back row we've had a bit of an argument," he said. "We've got the likes of John Barclay and Ross Rennie coming through, experienced players like Ally Hogg and now Simon, while Al Strokosch replaced Jason White when he was injured and took his chance. Kelly Brown is also a fine player, but he made a couple of mistakes against Ireland which cost him his place. It's actually been quite difficult but it's a great situation and I think we proved that we pick people on merit when Jason became available again but we felt it would have been too harsh on Al Strokosch to leave him out after his performance in Dublin."

In the second row, Graham said a more focused but still combative performance by Nathan Hines had been another of last week's highlights and he expressed satisfaction with Scott MacLeod's development.

"Again we've got players who have different strengths and after Jim Hamilton was injured Al Kellock was very unlucky to hurt his knee because he would have been back in on the bench or maybe even starting against England," said Graham.

"Scott Murray is also back in the reckoning, but Scott MacLeod has done well. I think he was a wee bit jittery on our lineouts last week and he could maybe be a wee bit more aggressive in the contact areas, but we've had a word about that this week."