An emotional Stuart McInally insisted no-one was feeling the hurt of Scotland’s opening World Cup disaster more than the players and management, but that they’d seen and understood the hostile reaction to their performance from the public back home.
Captain on Sunday, McInally had to be treated for severe cramp in the medical room after playing all 80 minutes, but he has clearly taken the 27-3 hammering by Ireland hard, and the criticism hurt even more although if it was deserved.
“We can’t ignore it,” he said of the public reaction. “It is all over social media. It isn’t something we go looking for, but you do stumble across it.
“We know we did not play well on Sunday. It was not through lack of effort or through lack of preparation. Every one took the field and everybody did all they could to win that game. Nobody is hurting more than the players and the management, everyone of us.
“We have to learn from it, of course we do, we can’t just bin it and forget it. But we are not going to play Ireland again (here in Japan). We have to turn our focus to Samoa and how we are going to beat them.”
McInally conceded that criticism was justified, but didn’t have an answer as to why Scotland were so off the pace on a match they’d been targeting for well over a year.
“Based on the way we played yesterday, I certainly don’t think we are not due any criticism,” he continued. “It’s a professional sport, we are expected to play well and we didn’t play well.
“We are hard on each other, and we are desperate to do well in this tournament.”
But he agreed that the atmosphere within the squad at the moment was one of stunned disbelief at what had happened in Yokohama.
“Sometimes if you don’t prepare well and training has not gone as well and you get beat you look back at that and say it was the cause, but we trained really well and prepared as best we could,” he added.
“I mentioned it earlier in the week, and reiterated it midweek that no stone was left unturned. We knew all our roles so we could just focus on being energetic and being physical. That is what was disappointing, because that was what was probably lacking.”
The focus had to be on Samoa, and winning the next three games.
“At the moment it is tough to do that,” he said. “We invested a lot of time into that Ireland game; that goes for everyone involved in the group. Then to perform so poorly is really disheartening.
“Everyone is gutted, but the tournament was never going to be won and lost yesterday.
“We need to make sure we review the game and we learn from it. Then we have to switch our focus to Samoa, this is the most important game now. Nothing changes, it was the same whether we had won or lost yesterday.
“We played them once recently and we will watch them when they play Russia but they are a big physical side and have excellent skills. They are very good on counter attack so we will have to be careful how we play against them.”
The loss of Hamish Watson to the campaign will be felt, he agreed.
“It is really sad for Hamish, he is a quality player and he is our starting number seven isn’t he?” he said. “He is going to be a big loss for us.
“But Magnus (Bradbury) comes in; he has been here (in Japan) so he is up to speed with the time zone and everything, so it should be fairly seamless for him to come in and begin training with us.
“I am gutted for ‘Mish. He is a close friend as well, and I knew how much he was desperate to play in this World Cup. I know he is gutted he is having to head home.”
