Matt Scott admitted the visit of Stormers to Hive Stadium on Saturday is a “massive” game for Edinburgh as they look to put right the hammering by the Lions – a match the Scotland centre acknowledged ranks as “the worst I have been involved in professionally”.
Scott, who returned for a third spell this summer, admitted the team failed to stick to the gameplan given to them by head coach Sean Everitt as the South African side ran riot in a devastating first half in Johannesburg.
Scott said Edinburgh “completely shot ourselves in the foot” in the opening 40 minutes and did conversely the opposite of what they had discussed in the build-up.
But the biggest frustration for the 34-year-old was that a side packed with internationals could not turn the tide during the first half.
He said: "The most disappointing thing was we started off poorly and weren’t able to pull that back before half-time.
“That is all on the senior players, the leadership group, the game-drivers – your nines and 10s.
“We have taken responsibility for not being able to address that after they scored their second try or third try and say ‘lads, let’s structure this game up a bit’ because we were just playing right into their hands.”
Edinburgh named a starting XV with 1,094 appearances for the club for Saturday’s game that included 13 full internationals.
Yet Scott conceded they were not able to stem the flow from the Lions due to a “lack of maturity”.
He continued: “We got drawn into a certain style of game and some of it…I don’t really know. We had an off-day and it completely got on top of us – the heat, the altitude and stuff.
“We kept trying to out-play them. When you go two or three tries down, it is counter-intuitive sometimes to go to a more conservative game.
“The scoreboard pressure affects you and you think ‘we need to score tries now’, whereas actually our best chance of scoring points was structuring the game up.
“It was a completely unacceptable performance by us. We’ve had a good review, but a lot of the boys have been saying ‘talk is cheap, we need to start putting in performances on the pitch’.
“I could say anything here. Sean [Everitt] could say anything. We’ve had three games now. The first two we put ourselves in a strong position to win.
"Obviously we had an aberration of a first half at the weekend, so I think it’s time for us to deliver a good performance.”
“It’s such a massive game for us,” the experienced centre said.
“We are not underestimating that fact. I know this group has got fight. I see them every day and I have played with them.
“But I think the most important thing for us to win this game. If we stick to our plan and try our best and they are just better on the day, we can live with that.
“The first three games of the season have been games where we have shot ourselves in the foot quite a lot, which is really frustrating.
“If you are beaten by a better team, you can hold your hand up and say ‘fine’.
“Leinster and Bulls were games that we probably should have done better in and we had some soft moments, then obviously it was a terrible first half at the weekend.”
"I think that was the worst half of rugby I have ever been involved in professionally. It hurts, but words are completely irrelevant. I can stand here and say anything.
“We need to show on the pitch that we have got fight and we’re not soft.
“I can see everyone’s very determined to do that, but we need to show that on the pitch.”
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