Captain Rachel Malcolm warned before the Women's Six Nations that Scotland, with a new coaching team and a raft of inexperienced players, may have to take a step back in order to take a few forward.
If last weekend's humbling by world champions England at Murrayfield was entirely predictable - though the 84-7 scoreline was heavier than hoped - a 41-14 thrashing in Italy felt like the kind of setback Malcolm had forewarned.
The skipper was not part of it, having been ruled out prior to kick-off through injury. How the Scots could have done with Malcolm's experience as the Italians ran amok in Parma.
Five unanswered first-half tries scarcely did the Azzurri's dominance justice. While Lana Skeldon's try and a splendid score from Molly Poolman took a little of the ugliness off the final scoreline, Giordana Duca's seventh try, scored while Italy had two players in the sin-bin, was a stark indication of how far off it Scotland were.
There is context, of course. A whole new coaching team, that host of new, inexperienced players and injuries to key players such as Malcolm, Emma Orr, Rhona Lloyd and others made this a tough assignment in Parma.
Even allowing for those factors this was, aside from a bit of resistance shown in the final quarter, a desperately poor Scotland performance.
"I think Italy brought a whole lot of energy in defence, put us under pressure on our attack systems, and obviously forced a few errors, got a few turnovers early, which we were pretty disappointed about," said Scotland head coach Sione Fukofuka.
"It's an area we identified that there would be a threat, and we just weren't as accurate as we wanted to be.
"We didn't get purchase early, we did some really positive things, turned it over, and momentum swung really quickly, so we've got to learn as a team that when momentum swings, we reset, and we go again and stick to the areas that we really wanted to target."
Fukofuka dismissed the idea his players were suffering an emotional hangover after the experience of playing at Murrayfield in front of a record crowd, only to fall to a huge defeat.
The head coach did, however, admit the injury toll will take some managing as the Scots look to bounce back against France at Hive Stadium on Saturday 9 May.
"Obviously it's a bit of a challenge when we don't have our top-line senior players, but the reality is a lot of teams are facing that," he said.
"For us now, it's about resetting, getting bodies right, looking forward towards France, and what we can do, having a bit of a break in the fallow week, before getting a really good week of prep, getting home to the Hive and playing in front of Scottish fans."