Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg says it is time for the Scotland team to look deep inside themselves to find the answer to their early World Cup exit at the hands of a rampant Japan in Yokohama earier today - and to start being honest with each other about where improvement need to be made.
The 27-year-old, who has added layers of maturity to his naturally impetuous rugby outlook in recent seasons to become a valued senior member of the squad, didn’t pull any punches as he reflected on his team’s failure to progress out of Pool A at international rugby’ flagship competition, following a heavy opening weekend defeat to Ireland and a slightly less one-sided but still fully merited reversal to the host nation.
“Nothing we say now is going to change anything,” he sighed.
“We have to make sure the next time we are back together we get on with it and perhaps start to realise that things aren’t going to go our way all the time. I truly believe we will be better for this experience.
“Listen, it’s going to hurt us,” he added. “We believed we could come here and achieve something special and we haven’t managed to make it past the group stages. It’s tough. The boys are devastated. We can’t change anything … we are going home.
“We have to realise where we are. Maybe our expectations aren’t as high as we’d want them to be. We now go back to the drawing board.
“We have to learn from this, individually and collectively. We have got to want to improve and learn.
“We need to put our bodies on the line at every opportunity. Every time you pull on a Scotland jersey you have to give your all. I believe we did at times.
“This is going to kill us for a few months but I believe we will get better for the experience and put Scotland back on the map.”
Hogg spoke about “a pretty bleak changing room” in the immediate aftermath of the 28-21 defeat.
“The boys are gutted,” he reiterated. “I truly believe we could have got the victory we needed to at least make it to the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, we came up short, and to be brutally honest, we were beaten by the better side.
“I thought they [Japan] were outstanding, but we coughed up some early ball and that put us on the back foot. You need to take your chances in a Test match and if you give away cheap ball a team like Japan will punish you.
“So, fair play to Japan, they took their opportunities and if you give a team like that 28 points then you will have to do something exceptional to win.
“They compounded our every error and we found ourselves behind our goal posts before we knew it.
Hogg added that he thought Scotland had shown flashes of their potential against Japan but is clearly frustrated that the team continue to perform only in fits and starts.
“At times we showed exactly what we were about, we scored early doors and got ourselves into the lead. But after that the momentum swung their way and they are a tough team to stop, especially with a crowd like that behind them.
“They are a team built on confidence and we simply didn’t do enough."
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