Saturday 28 February 2015 22:17, UK
Scotland head coach Vern Cotter has taken responsibility for his side's home defeat to Italy that leaves them propping up the Six Nations table and still searching for their first win of 2015.
A last-minute penalty try gave the Italians the victory in a match that the Scots had led throughout and means Cotter’s side must upset either England or Ireland in one of their final two games to avoid the Wooden Spoon.
Cotter is adamant that there is much more to come from Scotland’s current crop and insisted it was down to him to transfer his ideas to the players more effectively.
"I'm obviously not getting the message across,” he said. "That's one of those things that has been spoken about and it needs to be taken on board.
"I still think there is a lot of growth in this side. Things have gone forward. We just need to address a couple of simple things which will help us change and control outcomes better."
I'm responsible for the defeat so I will be having a good look at myself and how we can move forward.
He admitted that the decision to replace captain Greig Laidlaw with five minutes to go with Italy just beginning to apply more pressure was an error and that it was not his only mistake.
"Not just that. I'm responsible for the defeat so I will be having a good look at myself and how we can move forward," Cotter added.
"The result was disappointing because we led for the whole game. We didn't control it as well as we might have in the last 20 minutes.
"Through that lack of composure and control we got ourselves in difficulty.
"We have two more games against England away and Ireland at home and if we look at this closely there are things we need to do to give us more composure and allow us to close out games like this."
Flanker Blair Cowan, meanwhile, believes that a clash with England provides Scotland with the perfect opportunity to get out of their current slump.
"We can't allow this disappointment to roll on. It's key we react positively. We have to soak up how gutted we all are and harness that to turn this around,” he said.
"I was standing in the shower with my head down when Ryan Grant turned to me and said, 'the beauty of it is that we have England in two weeks - we can swing this all around'.
"It's the perfect game to bounce back. We know how good we are and we have shown it in games against top sides. But we are definitely not that Wooden Spoon side we are perceived to be.”
