What channel is Scotland vs Italy? Free live stream, TV, ref and team news for opening Six Nations clash

The Six Nations isn't a tournament that has been historically kind to Scotland - but once again the nation is daring to dream.

Since rugby's home nation event was expanded to six teams, Scotland have never won it - a drought that now stretches back more than 25 years to 1999, when Wales did us a major favour by scoring a last gasp try against England to secure a place in the history as the last ever Five Nations champions. Already Gregor Townsend's men have an injury crisis and have seen their chances written-off by stats gurus at Opta, but they won't be paying any attention to what the boffins' supercomputer has to say.

Last year was a typically mixed campaign, opening with a dramatic 26-27 victory against Wales in Cardiff before a narrow defeat to France at Murrayfield. A barnstorming 30-21 win over the Auld Enemy then saw the Calcutta Cup remain in Edinburgh for another 12 months - before a defeats to Italy and eventual champions Ireland.

Every match was tight though, showing that Scotland are closing the gap to the world's top teams. And every heading to the capital for the opening game will be travelling with genuine hope that, finally, this could be our year. Record Sport has all the details you need to make sure you don't miss any of the opening matchday action.

Scotland welcome Italy to Murrayfield for their opening game of the Six Nations on Saturday February 1, with kick off at 2.15pm.

It is, and better than that it's on free-to-air TV with the game live on BBC One Scotland. Coverage gets underway at 1.15pm and runs all the way until 4.30pm.

You can. The whole game will be available to stream via the BBC iPlayer website and app.

You can keep up with all the action right here on dailyrecord.co.uk! We'll have