Scotland captain Alastair Kellock believes his side have taken a “step forward” despite the defeat to Ireland.
“I thought that was a far better performance than we put in against Wales,” Kellock told BBC Scotland following the 21-18 loss in Edinburgh.
“But that doesn’t mean we will be hurting any less.
“We’re here to win international games, so we have got to look at the video, look at what we have done well and we have got to cut out mistakes.”
Poor defending from Scotland resulted in two Irish tries in the first half and the visitors ran in a third after the interval, when Scotland had Allan Jacobsen in the sin-bin for an infringement during a messy scrum.
The decision appeared harsh and may have had more to do with the prop’s habit of mouthing off to match officials.
Scotland head coach Andy Robinson was critical of referee Nigel Owens’ handling of the game and Kellock alluded to a sense of injustice surrounding the yellow card shown to Jacobsen.
“It is very disappointing when you are down to 14 men,” he explained.
It’s about moving forward now, going down to Twickenham and putting in a better performance
Alastair Kellock
“In an international game of rugby, it is difficult when you have 15 men on the park. It doesn’t mean we can afford to give away however many points – probably three soft tries.
“The first one is extremely disappointing because it is stuff we practice all week.
“We were fully prepared, but it happened, we dug it out, competed well in the last half and the subs that came off the bench made a massive impact, so credit to them, but ultimately we did not win the game.”
A late rally from the Scots had the crowd on their feet but the wait for a home try in the Six Nations has now been extended to more than two years.
“You have got to take positives and you have got to look at some of the ball carrying that went on,” added Kellock. “I thought it was superb.
“Sean Lamont was put at 12 to get the ball and go forward and he did it. I thought both Ruaridh [Jackson] and Dan [Parks] controlled the ball well and got our ball carriers into the game.
“But the Irish defence was good and that’s why we did not score any tries and our defence at times was weak.”
Following three defeats in this campaign, Scotland meet Grand Slam-chasing England at Twickenham in two weeks’ time, with the possibility of the 19 March clash with Italy at Murrayfield being a wooden spoon decider.
“It’s about moving forward now, going down to Twickenham and putting in a better performance – because it will have to be,” said Kellock.
