That was useless - Barclay laments Scotland's Twickenham horror show

A dismayed John Barclay described Scotland’s performance in their 61-21 trouncing at the hands of England as “useless”.

Scotland came into Saturday’s meeting at Twickenham knowing a win would put them in the driving seat for a maiden Six Nations crown.

But Vern Cotter’s men were blown away by the defending champions, who took advantage of Scotland’s injury-ravaged back-line to run in seven tries en route to a thumping Calcutta Cup triumph.

The heavy defeat means Scotland sit fifth in the table, but are only a point behind second-placed Ireland ahead of hosting rock-bottom Italy at Murrayfield in their final fixture next weekend.

A disappointing afternoon for Scotland who go down to the @SixNationsRugby Champions @EnglandRugby at Twickenham #ENGVSCO #AsOne pic.twitter.com/XIitM3uoW5

— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) March 11, 2017

“I don’t know what to say to be honest. We didn’t show up,” Barclay, who has been standing in as captain for the injured Greig Laidlaw, told ITV Sport.

“We got off to a bad start and it continued, our discipline was very poor and we conceded soft tries.

“England are a very good side, arguably the best in the world so fair play to them but we’re very disappointed obviously.

“It’s easy to look at that [injuries] as an excuse but we train for those scenarios. We believe in our squad so we’ll look at the review but it won’t be good watching.

“There always has been [fight in the side], we’re trying to move away from the tag of plucky losers but that wasn’t even plucky, that was useless.

“We’ve got one week left and we can finish the championship with three from five but if we play like that we’ve got no chance.”