Six Nations: Everybody hyped us up. We believed it - Gordon Reid
- Published
Scotland forward Gordon Reid says the team put some things right in their Six Nations win over France
Gordon Reid says Scotland were guilty of believing the hype surrounding them ahead of the Six Nations, but will not make the same mistake again.
The Scots were widely tipped to overcome an injury-ravaged Wales side in round one, but an inept display saw them blown away in Cardiff.
They responded with a 32-26 win over France and now host England next.
"We started off with Wales and as you all know, we didn't do that well," Reid said.
"Against Wales everybody hyped us up - 'Scotland are going to win, Scotland are going to win' - and we obviously believed that. We believed we could just go and win, just needed to show up.
"The French game we knew we needed to put it right. There [were] a lot of positives but a lot of stuff we need to work on."
Gordon Reid says Scotland failed to control their emotions in the record 61-21 loss to England last year
Scotland go into Saturday's Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield without a win over their oldest rivals in 10 years.
The last meeting between the sides saw Eddie Jones' men inflict a record 61-21 hammering at Twickenham.
"Last year we let our emotions get to us a little bit too much and that resulted in them beating us by a hefty amount," Reid said.
"So it's a huge thing for us to keep level-minded and keep our heads strong going into the game and thinking positively."
Head coach Gregor Townsend has admitted that in his own playing days he allowed the emotion around the Scotland-England rivalry to affect his performance in Calcutta Cup matches, and that's something back-row Hamish Watson is keen to guard against.
Scotland flanker Hamish Watson says the team cannot afford to allow England to run up an early lead at Murrayfield
"It's a match that for most Scottish fans is the biggest game of the year, but you've got to control that emotion as best you can," the Edinburgh flanker explained.
"There's going to be that edge about the training week, but you've got to control that.
"It's another game where we need to try to execute our skills and we're going to have to be at the best of our ability to beat a very good England team."
After falling 14-0 down within 13 minutes against Wales, and 10-0 down inside 10 minutes against France, Watson is aware any such generosity afforded to the Six Nations champions will be ruthlessly exploited.
Scotland's Fraser Brown was sent to the sin bin by referee Mathieu Raynal two minutes into the 61-21 defeat at Twickenham
"We're going to have to start well, which obviously we tried to do against France," he said.
"It didn't turn out that way and we did really well to get back into that game, but England are a good team and you want to start well against them and put them under the cosh.
"Discipline's massive, with the penalty count. That yellow card [for Fraser Brown after two minutes at Twickenham] last year, stuff like that happens. It's sport and that goes back to starting well.
"That happened at the very start of the game, then England got a try or two up and it's very hard to come back. So we've got to be disciplined and start the game well."