Hurting Hogg in hurry To put wrongs right

SCOTLAND have just six days between yesterday’s defeat by Ireland and Saturday’s game against Italy – an uncomfortably tight turnaround according to conventional thinking.

But such were the frustrations of the 27-24 defeat at Murrayfield that Stuart Hogg, for one, would far rather get back out there immediately.

Given the number of things that went wrong in their game, notably at the line-out, Scotland deserve credit for fighting back in both halves from a significant deficit – eight points early on, then 10 points in the second half. In the end, though, the home side were level at 24-24 for just a few minutes before a Johnny Sexton penalty proved decisive for Ireland.

For Hogg, the key lesson to be learned by Scotland in advance of the Italians’ visit is the importance to play at the top of their game from the start, rather than throwing all their energy into chasing down a deficit.

“I’d love next week to be in a position that we’re not chasing the game,” the Scotland captain said. “We want to be in a position where we’re comfortable, we’re in control of everything and have the foot on the throat from the very beginning.

“And that’s a challenge that I know the boys are more than capable of doing. The annoying thing for us now is that we have to wait till next week to perform.

“It’s difficult to take at the minute. The boys are really, really disappointed with the final outcome. The frustrating thing for myself and the rest of

the boys is we know we’re a lot better than that – a lot better than what we showed at times.

“And it hurts. This one really, really hurts. It’s just frustrating. It’s really, really frustrating.

“But look, what’s happened has happened. We can’t change it. We’re going to have to stick together and pick ourselves back up, because it’s a six-day turnaround and another chance to represent Scotland.

“For us it’s a challenge. There are some battered and bruised bodies. We’ll have to recover quick, take our learnings on board, and make sure we’re in the best place possible come next Saturday.”

There was some consolation for Scotland in the creativity and improvisation that they showed at times in attack, and in the defensive solidity that was also on show for much of the match.

But Hogg found the display of those virtues all the more frustrating because they were offset by some avoidable errors, and because they were not in evidence from the start.

“We know how good we can be in attack,” he continued. “We know how good we can be in defence.

“But it has to happen from the very first whistle, and at times, especially in the first 20 minutes, we got on the wrong side of the referee. We didn’t help ourselves.

“It’s pointless sitting here and concentrating too much on what happened. We’re going to have to take our learnings on board really, really quickly, and get back to what we do best this time next week.”