Youngs: We must discover that killer instinct
BEN YOUNGS shook his head in dismay as he admitted he and his team-mates still lack that “killer instinct to put teams away”.
The scrum-half insists individuals in the side must take full blame for what went wrong at Twickenham and need to take a hard look at themselves.
Leicester star Youngs claimed: “Wales did it to us and now Scotland. We were in command at half-time after playing some great rugby and scored some fantastic tries. We were the dominant team and Scotland had no answer. But the whole picture changed incredibly after the break and we could not get our mindset right to halt it. We couldn’t stop the momentum change and Scotland were all over us after that.
“It was disappointing, especially after what happened in Cardiff, that we could not put things right before they drew level. It was only then that we managed to get a grip of things and you saw the character we still had with that try at the end by George (Ford).
“We need to get that killer instinct to finish games off.”
Try-scoring wing Jack Nowell said: “We could not have put together a better opening 30 minutes of rugby. We attacked well and finished some excellent moves. Normally we would expect to then step up another gear. You have to control the simple things and manage the game better than we did.
“Instead, we seem to sit back and allow them space and time to build up some pressure. Scotland never give up. We saw how dangerous they can be with the ball and when we missed tackles and the physicality levels dropped.”
No.8 Billy Vunipola said: “It’s not nice when a game like that gets away from you so fast.”
Scotland captain Stuart McInally said: “If you ever wanted to see a team fighting with real heart and character that second half performance was it. I’m sure our supporters thought we were about to be completely overwhelmed but we were always going to keep battling.
“To come back the way we did was remarkable, and even more incredible when you consider the number of players we were missing through injury.”