Stuart Hogg says there are no more grey areas after Scotland’s capitulation in Yokohama: “we’re in must-win territory already”.
The full back tried hard to generate some attacking flair for Scotland against Ireland, but was unable to make much of an impact as the Scots tumbled to a 27-3 defeat.
“As good as Ireland are, we know we are better than that,” he said. “I’ve not been involved with in a Scotland camp for a long, long time where we had prepared ourselves so well.
“We are absolutely gutted with the way it played out and the way we reacted. Now we’re in must-win territory already.
“Test match rugby is incredibly intense, more so when it’s at a World Cup. There is so much on the line and we know what we need to do now.
“We know we must win our next three games to ensure that we qualify. That is not going to be easy but that’s exactly what we must do.”
Hogg admitted he was “nowhere near good enough by my own standards”.
“I will look at my own performance first,” he said. “This game is gone, but we will look at it, analyse it and we’ll go back to the drawing board if we have to.
“Collectively we will then look at where we went wrong as a team. For us now, it’s all about reaction. It is pointless saying we’re going to do this, that or whatever. We need a reaction and we need it fast.
“There WILL be a reaction. We’re downbeat, we’re annoyed and we’re frustrated at how we played, we will get an opportunity next week and we need to put it right. But we have to stop killing ourselves (with mistakes).
“All last week we spoke about not beating ourselves, but the first three Ireland tries all came from our own mistakes.
“Whether it be a knock-on or a turnover, and I was turned over myself, Ireland were able to get their driving maul moving and it was very difficult to stop.
“The first half especially we just did not contest and we know that’s not good enough.”