The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scotland urged to move on from mauling
Scotland’s humiliated squad have been told there is no time to sulk following their record-equalling 61-21 loss to England.
Vern Cotter’s team were ripped apart at Twickenham on Saturday as Eddie Jones’ men wrapped up their second straight RBS 6 Nations title.
The severity of the beating they endured came as a brutal shock to the team, who ran out at the English HQ with genuine hopes of claiming a first win in London since 1983.
But now forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys has told the players they must shake off the pain before rounding off their campaign at home to Italy on Saturday.
He said: “It’s such a short turnaround that we really have to focus on what’s coming next.
“There’s not a lot of benefit in going back over that game. We’ll obviously look at what we can do better and what we can learn going into this week but it’s certainly a case of ‘we’ve had a bad day, let’s move on’.
“We moved on pretty quickly after the game.
“It’s not a case of what’s happened but what’s going to happen next.
“We saw the autumn Tests and Six Nations as an eight-game block and we’re very keen as a group that we finish it in the right manner.”
“We’ve still got the ability to win three games at home and finish as high up the championship as we can,” added Humphreys.
“This group has been through a lot together and we’ve came out of adversity many times. We hope those experiences that we’ve shared over the last three years will help us in preparation for what’s going to be a tough game.”
The Azzurri clash will also see head coach Cotter bid farewell to Murrayfield, with Glasgow’s Gregor Townsend taking over from the Kiwi this summer.
But Humphreys says the sentiment can wait until after the final whistle.
“As a group we really want to park that and we’ll think about that after the game,” he said. “This is about focusing on the job and finishing a tough eight-game period. We want to represent ourselves in the right manner.”
Having lost skipper Greig Laidlaw, Josh Strauss and John Hardie to injury during the tournament, the Scots’ casualty list grew even longer at the weekend after Mark Bennett was ruled out of the championship closer with arm and knee injuries.
Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Ryan Wilson are also recovering from concussions while Finn Russell, Huw Jones (both knee) and Richie Gray (hamstring) are doubts for this weekend as well.
The squad could be reduced further after hooker Fraser Brown was cited for his dangerous tackle on Elliot Daly just 90 seconds into the Twickenham showdown.
The Glasgow front-rower was sin-binned and now faces a disciplinary hearing today to decide if he should have been redcarded.
“We’re obviously going to take contingencies in case Fraser is banned but we’re fairly hopeful that the right punishment was on the field,” said Humphreys.
“As for the injuries, generally when you get to this stage of the tournament you’ve got a few people you’ve got to nurse through.
“Going into this game you’re not changing a lot. You’re just trying to get people back to full fitness with as much energy as they can before you play your next game.”