Shell-shocked Scotland did not hang around King’s Park after their defeat by Samoa, rushing back to their hotel to lick their wounds and try to regroup before taking on the even tougher challenge of South Africa next week.
Fifteen players needed medical treatment after the match, with one already heading home for further tests and another five not certain to take part in the remaining tour fixtures.
The worst damage was sustained by Pat MacArthur, the hooker making his Test debut, who hurt his knee only two minutes into the game.
A medical assessment yesterday morning before the team left for Nelspruit, the South African town where they will play their hosts on Saturday, revealed “significant” damage so he is on his way back to Scotand for further scans.
Captain Kelly Brown will also face further tests, though his ankle injury seems not to be as bad as first feared, while fellow forwards Geoff Cross and Johnnie Beattie will have shoulder injuries assessed.
Centre Alex Dunbar and fly-half Tom Heathcote will have to pass concussion tests before they can play again following blows to the head.
The five will all stay with the tour party and interim head coach Scott Johnson does not intend to call out any further replacements Jon Welsh has already arrived with the squad as cover for Ryan Grant, who was called up by the Lions.
That means interim head coach Johnson is gambling with going into the final two matches with only two fit hookers, Steve Lawrie and Scott Lawson.
The sheer scale of the physical damage to the team comes as a serious blow to the Scots since they have some hefty rebuilding to do after the dispiriting defeat by the Pacific Islanders.
The injuries are also likely to prevent Scotland training with the intensity they appeared to require while they were being bullied out of the game by the robust and dynamic Samoans.
The physical trauma was matched by the mental anguish of watching the Scotland side simply fail to match the Samoans in the one-to-one confrontations.
Johnson said: “I’m not embarrassed, that is not the right word, but I am disappointed by the fact that it was a Test match and you have to win the contact battles to win a Test. We didn’t.
“It is a collision problem, there was some great defence but all their tries came on the back of one-on-one tackles that were missed.
“There was nothing else the last try, one-on-one missed tackle; the early tries, bad positioning or one-on-one missed tackles.
“If you lose them against a side like that who can score, you are in trouble. They are behind your line and you are in trouble.
“You have to acknowledge what you need to do. You can’t hide from the fact that to play at this level you have to win the collisions with or without the ball. We were not good enough in that area and were punished. In Test matches that is what happens.”
Johnson did find a little solace in the number of new caps by the end all six uncapped players in the 23 had been used and reminded supporters that in 1998 England went to Australia and New Zealand with a raw team that got hammered.
Five years later they were winning the Rugby World Cup.
He added: “Careers start in funny ways; that was a big test for them tonight but it was good for that. I don’t think it was a step back from the Six Nations, it was a different team, a different situation we were in, they are not comparable.
Greig Laidlaw refused to use the absence of key players with the British and Irish Lions as an excuse for Scotland’s defeat.
“We’re not going to use that (the Lions tour) as an excuse,” Laidlaw said.
“We didn’t have a good Six Nations and we’re just disappointed to take another backward step coming here today.
“We need to go and have a good hard look at ourselves and work out our defensive systems. We need to build our play from the defence.”
He added of the match: “Conceding the tries in the first half I think we were always going to be struggling.”
Samoa captain Paul Williams revelled in the nation’s maiden victory over Scotland, and hailed his forwards’ contribution to the final result.
The full-back said: “We’ve had some really close tussles with Scotland and we’re always been on the wrong side of the ledger so it’s great to be able to right that today.
“(The two early tries) gave us some confidence but I was really proud of the forwards and the momentum they were able to create.
On the subject of Laidlaw’s four penalties, he added: “I’m hoping (discipline) isn’t an issue. Hopefully we can learn and cue each other on those key points.”