Scotland 'need to be a lot better' to succeed in Six Nations - Russell

Scotland co-captain Finn Russell says they "have to be a lot better" than they were against Italy if they want to succeed in the Six Nations.

Despite some nervy moments, Gregor Townsend's side were 31-19 winners at Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon.

Scotland face Ireland in their next match on Sunday 9 February and Russell insists they'll have to put in a much improved performance come next week.

"It was good to battle at the end for the win but we'll need to be a lot better if we want to do anything in this tournament," he said.

"For me personally my mistake was frustrating. The mistakes, the looseness we had, were probably individual [errors] which will be easier to fix. We'll come back Monday or Tuesday and sort a few things out.

"Huw [Jones] was outstanding today. I thought Stafford [McDowall] was really good at 12 as well. The backs worked really well together, created a lot of chances and if we're going to do anything in this tournament we have to try and finish those off.

"There were probably four of five tries we left out there today."