Scott Cummings: Scotland must 'win at all costs' at Murrayfield against England
- Published
Scotland failed to win their opening Six Nation's clash in Dublin
Scott Cummings says Scotland cannot continually settle for taking the positives from defeats and must "win at all costs" when they take on England at Murrayfield.
Gregor Townsend's side failed to turn chances into points as they lost 19-12 to Ireland in Dublin in Saturday's Six Nations opener.
Cummings believes it's results rather than plaudits his team are targeting.
"For us, it's about winning at all costs," said the Scotland lock.
"There's a couple of moments where we can manage it better, make better decisions, cut the ill-discipline down.
"We felt we might have been the better team but at the end of the day Ireland were the ones that won so they'll go down as the better team.
"I think we've showed we've got the ability to score tries and stop teams so we're excited for it. But winning at all costs is important.
"I'm sure England will be pumped to come up and try and beat us. It's a big game for them as well so I'm sure they'll be just as pumped up as we are.
"England at home is the biggest game of the season, any season, and we'll be ready for it."
Six Nations: Ireland 19-12 Scotland highlights
Scotland butchered numerous promising attacking positions in Dublin and threw away five, possibly seven points when Stuart Hogg's horror moment saw him drop the ball over the try-line with no Irish defenders near him.
Despite the frustrating nature of the defeat, Cummings believes pushing Ireland all the way represents progress for his side.
"One of our mottos this year is staying in the fight," said the Glasgow Warriors lock, who made his Six Nations debut at the Aviva Stadium.
"We don't want to be a team that's labelled as 'loses and loses big' so we were proud of the fact we made ourselves tough to beat and it was a tough battle.
"There was stuff we didn't get 100% right but it's a step in the right direction for us. As much as we were happy with the performance we know there are some key things we can get better at.
"It's a weird feeling because we know we could have won that but for a couple of small things. Going into next week we'll need to tidy those up and we know those areas are important for us. If we put in the same performance as we did against Ireland plus that wee bit more we can get the result."