BROKEN, SHOCKED, FURIOUS
Hurting Hogg gives Scotland both barrels for dismal show ROB ROBERTSON
THE anger and the disappointment were etched on Stuart Hogg’s face as he left the pitch at full-time, punching his hand in frustration and mumbling to himself as he made his way up the tunnel.
The torrential rain shower that had engulfed the Yokohama International Stadium matched his mood. Here was a man, along with only Grant Gilchrist, who had left it all out on the pitch. They had given every ounce.
Hogg was broken. Gutted at the way the game had gone so badly wrong for Scotland.
He had talked exclusively to Sportsmail on the eve of the game of his desire to do something special against Ireland to honour his friend Richard Wilkinson, who died aged just 17 when both were passengers in a speeding car. Maybe that was part of the reason Hogg was hurting more than most as he made his way to the dressing room.
He emerged half an hour later still looking shell-shocked at the way Scotland had failed to even lay a glove on Ireland.
The British and Irish Lion also didn’t miss with his withering criticism of his own team’s performance.
‘That was hugely disappointing and we have to stop killing ourselves with displays like that,’ said Hogg. ‘I’ve not been involved with a Scotland camp for a long, long time where we had prepared ourselves so well for a game.
‘That is part of the reason why I am absolutely gutted with the way it played out and the way we reacted.
‘You can’t just sit back and admire teams and play the way we did at times out there. We have come down on the wrong side of a bad trip. ‘As good as Ireland are, we know we are better than that. ‘All last week, we spoke about not beating ourselves but the first three Ireland tries all came from our own mistakes. ‘Whether it be a knock-on or a turnover, and I was turned over myself, Ireland were able to get their driving maul moving and it was very difficult to stop.
‘In the first half especially, we just did not contest and we know that’s not good enough.’
Hogg admitted Scotland are now in ‘must-win territory’ and cannot afford to slip up in any of their three remaining games against Samoa, Russia or Japan if they want to qualify for the knockout stages.
‘There are no grey areas — we have to win them all now,’ said the Scotland full-back.
‘Test match rugby is incredibly intense, probably more so when it’s at a World Cup.
‘There is so much on the line and we know what we need to do now. We know we must win our next three games to ensure that we qualify and that is not going to be easy.
‘This game is gone but we will look at it, analyse it and we’ll go back to the drawing board if we have to.
‘We need to make sure that we ultimately learn from this game and make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes against Samoa next Monday.’ Hogg may have made a few breaks and saved two further Ireland tries by getting back to cover in defence but he was also highly critical of his own display.
And he added: ‘I was nowhere near good enough by my own standards, so I will look at my own performance first.
‘I had a couple of opportunities and perhaps I should have come harder at the ball on one or two occasions.
‘We try to play the fastest rugby in the world but, unfortunately, it didn’t come off against Ireland.
‘We couldn’t get any go-forward ball and Ireland just shut us down. I couldn’t get moving but I have to come up with ways to beat that.
‘Collectively, we will now look at where we went wrong as a team. We’ll all be hoping that we get a chance to put things right next week against Samoa.
‘The frustrating thing is that a week can be a long time in Test match rugby, especially when you are coming in off the back of a defeat like that.
‘We will review what went wrong and right now, for us, it’s all about reaction.
‘It is pointless saying we’re going to do this, that or whatever. We need a reaction and we need it fast against Samoa — and I think there will be one.
‘We need to make sure we’re in the right place mentally for next week.
‘I believe we have enough characters in the team to ensure that happens.’