STUART Hogg expects Wales to attack Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday along the same lines that England did at Murrayfield two days ago. But the full-back has insisted that he and his team-mates will learn from their 15-9 Calcutta Cup defeat, and that relatively minor improvements can ensure that they play a lot better in Wales than they did against Eddie Jones’s side.
“What we do know about Wales is that they’ll be a same-way team - forwards punching round the corners all day and they’ll stick high balls up again,” Hogg said. “We'll look at their game against Ireland and see what we can learn from our game and hopefully there will be chances that finish off next week.
“I think we just need to reset a little quicker off the ball. At times when we were getting the ball we had just one out runner and that's when it became slow for us. We'll review this game and see what we can do. We'll watch the Wales game and see what they’re up to. Hopefully next week we’ll get the win.”
Hogg acknowledged that winning the opening game in the Six Nations Championship for the first time in ten years would have been a huge boost to Scotland’s morale, not to mention their hopes of going from Wooden Spoon winners to title contenders. “Obviously, getting a win first up would do wonders for everybody. Unfortunately, that's not the case, but we’ll knuckle down and work hard and see what happens next week.
“Credit to England, I thought their defence was pretty good. At times, we split our attack, but it didn't come off for us. We live and learn and move on.
“We were bitterly disappointed by the defeat. We worked incredibly hard through the week on our patterns of play, but unfortunately it didn't come off for us.
“We can't dwell on it too much. We've got to keep our heads up, and congratulations to England on their win.”
Scotland lost the try count 2-0, with their best opportunity of a score being spurned when Finn Russell kicked ahead rather than passing to Hogg on his outside. “I was calling for it,” the full-back said.
“ He apologised straight away, as soon as he kicked it. On another day we would have scored that, but it's these little margins that are the difference between winning and losing a game. It's very unfortunate that we didn't take chances.”
Asked if he would have backed himself to score, Hogg added: “I hope so, but there was a long way to go.”
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