JASON WHITE: SCOTLAND TAUGHT THE HARSHEST LESSON

AFTER the high of our victory in the last game against Wales at Murrayfield, this was a low for Scotland. The biggest thing to take into account is that we came into this match against England with so much hope and expectation. What could have gone wrong did go wrong.

Fraser Brown’s tackle on Elliot Daly at the start of the match was quite reckless. England got points on the board quickly and then the injuries just went against Scotland.

England were superb. They were clinical and just steamrollered us to the end. We had no line speed in defence as we tried to come out to meet the English players. They dominated contacts and collisions.

I think it could have been a red card for Brown, but a yellow card was the right decision. It was not malicious, but I think the players do understand the rules and how sensitive you need to be around lifting a player above the horizontal and getting him back down on the ground.

To go from that to then losing Stuart Hogg and then Mark Bennett, who had replaced Hogg, hurt his knee. It just did not go our way at all.

All the hope coming into the game was tempered by the fact we needed a bit of luck. We needed the bounce of the ball to come our way. Maybe we might have got the bounce of the ball, evened itself out and it could have not gone England’s way.

But lady luck was definitely not smiling on our team. It’s a reflection of where we are. We have been very good at home. We have been outstanding at Murrayfield, but we have not replicated our home resilience and not been able to reproduce on the road.

We are a better team than we showed yesterday.

We have to ask questions as to what was happening in our defence and midfield. We didn’t seem to cope with the dummy runners. We did not identify who we had to take and that let us down.

We have a fantastic defence coach in Matt Taylor, but there was no clarity coming off the line from Scottish players.

Looking at the tapes after the match, the guys will be disappointed. Jonathan Joseph came through so easily. It was too easy for England to make breaks through the middle.

We scored three tries in amongst all those injuries. When was the last time we scored three tries at Twickenham? We need to remember we were without Hogg, probably our best playmaker, and Bennett.

As Jim Telfer said, you can only play the hand you’re dealt. Physically, England were that bit better than us. With the likes of Billy Vunipola and Danny Care, that’s the quality they have.

That’s the reality and why they have equalled New Zealand’s record of 18 wins on the bounce. It’s a fair reflection — England are a very good team at the moment.

Huw Jones scoring two tries at Twickenham is not a bad achievement. Richie Gray was outstanding again in the forwards. He kept working the whole game.

Richie Gray was the one man who stood out for me all day. He was still making tackles, being aggressive and offering himself up.

The other person who probably won’t get noticed in the grand scheme of things for his ability at the scrum is Zander Fagerson. He had good scrums when the pressure was on Scotland on the five-yard line.

In the journey of this Scotland team, there are some very, very tough and harsh lessons which have been learned after this defeat. They need to take that forward.

If we can beat Italy with a bonus point in our final match, after winning against Ireland and Wales, then we have continued our progression. It will be something to look back on.

Scotland need to regroup. Their confidence and pride has taken a big hit. They need to put in a performance against Italy at a sold-out Murrayfield.

The England defeat has hurt us — we need to come back from this.