We must back up England victory, insists skipper

the Scotland captain. ‘For us to make that happen, we have to believe in ourselves as individuals and as a collective.

‘Last week is done with. We can draw a line in the sand now. The England game is over. We take a huge amount of confidence from it but understand that, this week, we are going to have to make it happen again against Wales.

‘We are not looking too far ahead in the tournament. We are just focusing on the first 20 minutes against Wales and making sure we get that right. If we get that right, then we’ll start to grow in confidence and hopefully as the game goes on we’ll get better and better.’

Hogg said the absence of fans inside BT Murrayfield meant his players had to get themselves in the right frame of mind through their own efforts and it was vital they all came out of the dressing room in the zone.

‘We’ve not got the crowd there to cheer us on, but as long as we’re in our little bubble with spikes on it we’ll be fine,’ said Hogg. ‘We put a huge emphasis on the energy we bring on and off the field as a whole squad.

‘The non-playing players, management and everyone else involved in the team. We’ll celebrate the little victories, turnovers and draw energy from that.

‘If it’s a scrum penalty we’re patting Zander Fagerson on the back, or a turnover we’re patting Hamish Watson on the back. Everybody’s got a role to play within this squad and we are very tight.

‘We’ve learned a lot about each other over the last year or so off the field, and we talk a lot about creating our own energy and being involved in our little bubble and not letting anybody burst it and that’s something that we’ll hopefully continue to do against Wales.

‘You’ll see when things are going right we’re energetic, we’re vocal but the main thing is that when things are up against us, we’re still tight and we’ve still got each other’s back. It’s something that I feel we’re in a very good place with.’

Hogg said it didn’t concern him that Scotland were favourites going into the match after beating Wales in their delayed final game of the 2020 Six Nations in Llanelli back in October.

‘We just concentrate on our jobs and that is all we are looking at,’ he said. ‘We have to create energy in the right way and make sure we are solid from one to 15.

‘If we impose our game plan on them, stand firm defensively, take our opportunities in attack and play in the right areas we give ourselves every opportunity to win it.’

Hogg confirmed that the Scotland team would all be standing ahead of the Wales game to show their opposition to racism, rather than taking the knee as some of their players did ahead of the match against England.

‘Last week we weren’t aware of the things that were going to be happening pre-game against England,’ he added. ‘This week we are and we all stand against racism.’