Six Nations: Call to Scots ahead of Italy test

The 22-year-old Edinburgh centre says that with better quality possession the team could cut loose when Italy visit Murrayfield on Saturday.

Currie-reared Scott earned his eighth cap in the 18-38 defeat by England in London and is now desperately hoping for a home RBS Six Nations Championship debut.

“We had our moments. The area we lost it in was at the breakdown,” said Scott.

“We are all gutted but we just have to pick it up for next week.”

The match was the first with interim coach Scott Johnson in charge, and Scott said: “We did simplify our gameplan and everyone knew their roles.

“We just kept giving away penalties. Whether that was us not making impact in tackles or not being accurate in coming in from the side when we were attacking, it’s letting us down.

“We were in shape but just couldn’t get the ball.

“On the rare occasions we got breaks, we had a dangerous back three who can finish.

“Hopefully, we will have sorted out issues at the breakdown and will be able to use Stuart Hogg, Tim Visser and Sean Maitland more.

“We have the ability in our backline to play wider as long as we get the first parts right – set piece and breakdown.

“Those three home games coming up can be a springboard with the next game massive.

“Encouragement can be  taken from a late rally but disappointingly we had the game lost by then, having been hoping to put England under pressure after half time.

“We were in the game at that stage but didn’t quite match our opponents on the re-start.

“Stick with this team is the message to supporters and I hope I am there to rectify a loss against an England side who do the basics right; that’s the key to international rugby where the margins are very small.”