Allan Jacobsen described some of Scotland’s play in defeat in Dublin as ”horrendous” but predicts a bounce-back of epic proportions in the 6 Nations wooden spoon decider in Rome.
The veteran prop was almost at a loss for words to sum up the disappointment of what he agreed was ”a massive setback” to Scotland’s development.
”It’s hard to know what to say it’s just really frustrating,” said the Edinburgh man. ”It was a bit of a mixed game. We played some good stuff and some absolutely horrendous stuff.
”Obviously we have to take a look at this closely but right now I can’t explain the performance out there.
”It’s hard to say how much of a step back this is. We’ve been playing to a set gameplan in this tournament and in the games leading up to this we had been improving, and we felt we still had it going but today everything just fell by the wayside.
”Our performance in the second half was just unacceptable. Ireland are a good team but our execution and our own drills let us down.”
The knowledge and experience of previous games in Rome puts him under no illusions to the challenge that lies ahead.
Jacobsen continued: ”We have a massive game next week our backs are against the wall. There’s only one thing to do and that’s to make sure we are ready.
”They’ve been tough games every time I’ve played over there. They’ve obviously be targeting us for a win in this game and it’s going to be a battle.
”We just need to get our heads right, get out on the training pitch on Monday and get ready for it.
”To be honest, if being involved in a performance like this one doesn’t motivate you to do better then you shouldn’t be there. It shouldn’t affect us it should galvanise us to do better.”
It was Scotland’s sixth successive defeat dating from the loss to Argentina in the Rugby World Cup, the worst run since 2003-04 under Matt Williams, the last time the Scots were whitewashed in the Six Nations.
Head coach Robinson was most disappoined with the way the Scottish setpiece broke down, the lineout in particular.
”The lineout didn’t function as we had hoped,” he said. ”We couldn’t string more than three phases together until the time when Lee Jones got a clash of heads the one time we were in space and ended up being carried off.
”This is not the position we wanted to be in and we have a lot of work to do this week in order to win the game next week in Rome, for it’s a tough place to go.”
Stand-off Greig Laidlaw said that a failure to put phases together meant it had been ”a tough old day”.
”Lineout was scrappy and scrums a bit messy, so we didn’t build any rhythm,” he said. ”Defence is what cost us we made too many silly errors to give away tries.”
Meanwhile Jones stayed in Dublin’s St Vincent’s University Hospital as the team flew back to Edinburgh as he continued to recover from severe concussion.
Scoland team doctor James Robson said Jones had made ”good progress” overnight after being detained by consultant John Ryan on leaving the Aviva Stadium.
The former Dundee GP said: ”Lee took a blow to the head which resulted in a severe concussion. He has made good progress but will stay in hospital until the consultant is happy for him to be released.
”Lee is scheduled to travel back to Scotland tomorrow. We would like to thank John and his team for the expert help given to us.”
Nick De Luca, who was pulled out of the team half an hour before kick-off with hamstring trouble, is likely to be available for Rome.
Four other players will require further medical attention and assessment back-row forwards John Barclay (ribs) and David Denton (shin bruising), scrum-half Mike Blair (shoulder) and centre Max Evans (dead leg).
Photo by Julien Behal/PA Wire