Scotland have moved on from Ireland defeat, says John Barclay

John Barclay says accusations that Scotland's players look like they do not care have "hurt" the squad and he has defended their right to enjoy their downtime.

Gregor Townsend's men have undergone a week of soul-searching since their 27-3 Rugby World Cup defeat to Ireland in their opening game at Yokohama last Sunday.

Scotland now face Samoa on Monday and vice-captain Barclay says dwelling on the Ireland performance would be detrimental.

"The aftermath of last week's game wasn't very nice for various reasons, but we've moved on," he said. "We've got other games to play, so we have moved on."

"You analyse it, over-analyse it and go over it and over it again. It's something we don't take lightly. I've heard some people say it looks like we don't care, which couldn't be further from the truth.

"We're not going to sit in our hotel rooms and cry for a week. We can't do that, so we've been out exploring. We're here at a World Cup, it's a great opportunity and we've got another opportunity on Monday against Samoa.

"I understand some people find it potentially frustrating to see us out and some people see a snippet on social media and it looks like people don't care.

"But the reality is we do care, but we can't stay in our rooms and just do nothing because that would be ridiculous and not good for the culture, and the boys have got to move on, have fun and remind ourselves we've got a big game
this week."