Thursday 16 March 2017 10:33, UK
Alex Dunbar reckons Scotland are still heading in the right direction - despite their spectacular fall from grace at Twickenham.
Vern Cotter's side suffered a record-equalling 40-point loss to England on Saturday as their RBS Six Nations title hopes were ruthlessly crushed.
But the Scottish centre is adamant one bad day at the office does not wash away the progress made under Cotter over the last three years.
Speaking ahead of the Kiwi's final match in charge - against Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday - Dunbar said: "We have 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.
"We have had an honest debrief of the (Twickenham) game. Everyone put their hands up when mistakes were made.
"We just didn't start well. Fraser Brown's 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."
But Dunbar believes the plan which reaped wins over Ireland and Wales can work again this weekend as his side look for a win which could see them finish second for the first time since the Championship was expanded to six teams.
He said: "Italy have shown a few different things in the Championship so far. We just need to go back to basics.
"There is always pressure on us to win. We played some of our best rugby in those first three games.
"We want to go out and express ourselves and pick off these mismatches that we can find."
