Andy Robinson admitted his side "have a lot to do" after Saturday's 32-14 defeat by Ireland left them facing a wooden spoon decider.
Scotland facing wooden spoon decider after sixth straight loss
Scotland coach Andy Robinson admitted his side "have a lot to do" after Saturday's 32-14 defeat by Ireland left them facing a wooden spoon decider against Italy.
The Scots contributed to an entertaining match but still slumped to their sixth successive Test defeat and will finish bottom of the table if they lose in Rome on Saturday.
"This is not the position we wanted to be in. We have a lot of work to do this week if we are to beat Italy," Robinson said.
"Rome is a tough place to go, even with a confident side. We have a lot to do this week."
Disappointing
Scotland, who crossed through Richie Gray with Greig Laidlaw kicking three penalties, trailed just 22-14 at the interval but failed to score again.
They dominated the third quarter but rarely troubled the Irish whitewash with substitute Fergus McFadden's late try pushing the home side out of sight.
"The second half was a step back. I don't want to quantify it. We didn't put any shape together," said Robinson.
"We didn't play well enough in the second half to win the game, which is very disappointing. Our set-piece, the lineout in particular, didn't function as well as we'd have liked.
"We couldn't string more than three phases together and that's not good enough at this level. It's a mark of where we are as a side that we cause a lot of our own problems."
Scotland wing Lee Jones was taken to hospital following a sickening clash of heads with opposite number Andrew Trimble.
Jones collapsed to the ground immediately after the impact and is to undergo a precautionary scan after leaving the field on a stretcher.
"Lee's been taken to hospital with a head knock. We are concerned for him and he's being checked up in hospital. It was a clash of heads. It happens," said Robinson.
Ireland crossed through Rory Best, Eoin Reddan and Andrew Trimble in the first half in a four-try rout at the Aviva Stadium.
Unfortunate
The victory brought with it a sense of what might have been after a narrow defeat to Wales and draw with France in Paris effectively ended their title hopes.
"Unfortunately, that's sport," said Best, who led Ireland in the injury-enforced absence of Paul O'Connell.
"You get good days and bad days. Against Wales it was bitterly disappointing but the bottom line is we were six points up with eight minutes to go, at home, and we weren't able to close that out.
"In France, we were 17-6 up at half-time and didn't score a point in the second half.
"We produced a good performance tonight and that's what we wanted, but we're disappointed not to have won all of our games to date.
"In every campaign that's what we set out to do. We'll look at what went wrong.
"We set a lot of things straight tonight but there are still a good few things that we can correct ahead of England."
Ireland coach Declan Kidney was pleased for his side and thankful the decision to disallow a Tommy Bowe score, who was brilliantly held up by Graeme Morrison before grounding, did not come back to haunt him.
"I am delighted for the players after everything that has been thrown at them in the last six days," said the coach. "You can look at the TMO one, but we will take the four tries and move on.
"We did not panic in the second half. There were times we tried things when maybe the safest thing would have been to kick into the corner but you cannot knock ambition and that is the way we want to play.
"We will enjoy tonight but will not get carried away because we know we have to be in Twickenham on St Patrick's Day."
