By Stuart Bathgate GORDON Reid is known as one of the most upbeat members of the Scotland squad – a man who team-mates know they can turn to on or off the field if their morale needs a boost.
True to form, the Glasgow Warriors loosehead was not slow in pressing home an important message on Saturday, insisting that, even in the wake of such a crushing defeat, the team could not forget the good work they have done earlier in the Six Nations Championship as they prepare for their last match at home to Italy in five days’ time.
But at the same time, Reid, who scored his first try for his country in the 61-21 loss to England, made no attempt to gloss over the many things that had gone wrong in Scotland’s performance. “It was hard to take, to be honest,” he said.
“We travelled to Twickenham with high expectations of achieving something special, but we ended up on the end of another beating.
“We never managed to settle, and it just felt like they were scoring try after try after try. It was like a snowball effect; they just kept on coming. There are times when we need to just slow it down and do what we’re good at, try to counteract them.
“We just couldn’t keep the ball. We need to sit down and see what we did wrong, pick out the few things we maybe did right, and move on.”
Admitting that his try had been no consolation, Reid was adamant that Scotland can still salvage something from a campaign which has seen them win two and lose two games so far. “It’s important that we don’t let this set everything back,” he added.
“We need to work on the negatives and do that quickly. Italy is a massive game, a must-win game for us. We need to get further up the table.
“The Calcutta Cup is out of the window now, the championship is gone, but we can beat Italy and finish higher up. If we beat Italy, that’s the best we’ve done for a while in the championship.
“We were good against Ireland and Wales. We need to play like that again. We’re professionals. We’re competitors. We’re here to win – and do what England are doing now, winning game on game on game.”
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