World Cup defeats to Argentina and England and five 6 Nations losses in a row are hardly what the Scotland boss would have wanted after his name was heavily linked with the Lions job next summer.
The result in Rome sees Italy avoid finishing bottom of the pile for the first time since 2007 but for Scotland it's a first 6 Nations whitewash in eight years.
Scotland could only muster a brace of penalties in the sunshine at the Stadio Olimpico as they produced another disappointing display after a comprehensive defeat to Ireland in Dublin last time out.
Giovanbattista Venditti's converted try put the Italians on course for a first win of the tournament shortly after half time as Scotland were made to pay the price for Nick De Luca's sin binning.
The Edinburgh centre saw yellow for knocking the ball out of scrum-half Eduardo Gorri's hands late in the first period and Venditti made full use of the numerical advantage by slicing through from close range following a fine flat pass from Kris Burton.
Scotland also saw Jim Hamilton controversially yellow carded by Alain Rolland later in the game for illegally pulling down a maul but they did hold out during his 10-minute absence.
Robinson's troops never really pressurised the Italian line, though, even when Allesandro Zanni became the third man to see yellow as Hamilton returned to the action with 15 minutes left to play.
Italy held on for the final quarter-of-an-hour with little trouble as Scotland's campaign faded badly after a promising start that should have seen them beat England at Murrayfield.
A similarly tight encounter against the French in Round 3 suggested the Scots weren't far away from a much-needed morale-boosting win but this particular loss will be especially worrying ahead of the summer trip to Oz for a one-off Test with the Wallabies.
