Sunday 12 March 2017 13:57, UK
Scotland scrum-half Henry Pyrgos has urged his team-mates to react to Saturday's 61-21 defeat to England with victory over Italy in coach Vern Cotter's final game in charge.
The Dark Blues went into Saturday's clash at Twickenham with the possibility of a first Triple Crown since 1990, but were dismantled by Eddie Jones' unbeaten England, who scored seven tries in a record-equalling 40-point winning margin.
Scotland conclude their Six Nations championship against Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday, with Pyrgos keen to send Cotter off to his job with Montpellier with a far better display.
"We've spoke in the dressing and the result was not what we wanted to do for Vern," said Pyrgos. "We're gutted.
"We're a lot better than we showed out there yesterday. That's why it's so hard to take.
"We know it's hard for the country to take because there was a lot of positivity behind us. We felt that support from the nation. It's just tough right now.
"We made a lot of errors and every time we did, England made us pay. There's still a chance we can finish second so we have to get ourselves up for that.
"We've done really well at Murrayfield over the last couple of seasons. Things have got better and better there. The atmosphere was brilliant against Wales but we just need to lick our wounds and take it on the chin.
"Vern has done a great job with this squad and now we want to go out and prove we're a better squad than we showed at Twickenham.
"The biggest impact he has had on this team is results. Before Saturday we were fifth in the world rankings, so you can see Vern has given guys a lot of confidence and great direction. We've one more game under him and we've got to go out there and do the business.
"Vern won't want us focusing on him but it will definitely be something in the background. We are conscious that we want to finish his reign in the right way."
Scotland hadn't won at Twickenham for some 34 years heading into Saturday's encounter, and couldn't have had a worst start after going down to 14 men after just 90 seconds.
Hooker Fraser Brown was sin-binned by referee Mathieu Raynal for a tip tackle on England back Elliot Daly, and when he returned the score was already 10-0 to the home side.
A series of injuries in the backs to key man Stuart Hogg, replacement Mark Bennett and winger Tommy Seymour did not help the Scotland cause, but the fixture was filled with a catalogue of unforced errors and ill discipline from Cotter's side.
"Fraser has put a tackle in and unfortunately, been given a yellow card," Glasgow scrum-half Pyrgos added. "You need to be careful in those situations.
"Early on in the game you want to come out and impose yourself on the opposition and he's put in a big hit. Was it his momentum, I don't know. It's a tough one.
"But what happened is definitely not down to Fraser. There's a lot more that goes on than that. It wasn't an ideal start but we're good enough players, a good enough team, to move on and do better.
"Unfortunately there were loads of other key moments where we made mistakes. They scored tries and the game got away from us very quickly.
"I don't think it was the occasion that got to us. A lot of the boys have played in big games before. We just didn't get our job done well enough and that's cost us."
