We must not crawl into our shell, says Dun bar
We just need to go back to basics. We started the Championship well, but things didn’t work out against England. Now we just need to go back to what was working in the earlier games
ALEX DUNBAR is convinced Scotland can end the Six Nations on a high against Italy on Saturday – as long as they remember what worked well for them in their previous home games.
The Glasgow Warriors centre saw his previously solid defensive partnership with Huw Jones ripped apart by England last weekend, as Scotland put in their worst display of the campaign to go down to a record 61-21 defeat.
But he is still certain the team have made progress in the last three years under Vern Cotter.
“We just need to go back to basics,” he said. “We started the Championship well, but things didn’t work against England.
“Now we just need to go back to what was working for us in the earlier games – we played some of our best rugby in those first three games.
“We don’t want to go into our shell and not play like the way we know we can. We want to go out and express ourselves and pick off the mismatches that we can find.
“We’ve been building and getting better week on week, but it obviously didn’t work at the weekend. I still think we’re a far better team than we were a few years ago.
“We just need to get back to doing what we do well – getting quick balls, putting teams under pressure and scoring good tries.”
Dunbar admitted the England game made for uncomfortable viewing.
The Calcutta Cup clash got off to a bad start for the Scots when Warriors hooker Fraser Brown was sinbinned in the second minute.
It soon got worse as the team seemed to lost the shape that had served them well in their previous games.
“It was tough to watch,” said Dunbar. “There were a lot of mistakes out there. We came up against a very good side who pretty much capitalised on every mistake we made.
“We had an honest debrief of the game, but since then we’ve been looking to put a few things right. It was blunt.
“Everyone knew we played s*** – we didn’t need anyone to say it. But everyone put their hands up when mistakes were made. We just didn’t start well. The card didn’t help, but we then slipped off a few tackles and they had a few mismatches which they exploited.
“I made a lot of mistakes defensively. I should have done a lot better. I’ve looked at that this week and hopefully I can put it right.”
Cotter will name his team today for what will be his last game as head coach before he hands over to Gregor Townsend.
Most of the players who underperformed at Twickenham will be given a chance to redeem themselves.
Substitute Mark Bennett has been ruled out and his place on the bench could go to fit-again Sean Maitland, while Glasgow trio Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Ryan Wilson all need to pass their headinjury assessments before being cleared to play.
Edinburgh No.8 Cornell du Preez could make his first start in place of Wilson, having come off the bench for his debut at Twickenham.