Italy v Scotland, Six Nations, March 17
Morrison forgets Ireland 'hiccup'
ESPNscrum Staff
March 12, 2012
Ireland's Tommy Bowe attempts to ground the ball, Ireland v Scotland, Six Nations, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland, March 10, 2012
Graeme Morrison holds up Ireland's Tommy Bowe © Getty Images
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Graeme Morrison has described Scotland's Six Nations loss to Ireland as a "hiccup" and called on his team-mates to prove their worth against Italy in Rome on Saturday.

The Glasgow centre wants a clean slate as they seek to avoid the wooden spoon with victory over the Azzurri at the Stadio Olympico.

"We've just got to believe. We're not a bad team overnight," Morrison said. "Okay, we've not won a game but things have been progressing really well.

"Some of the rugby we've played this tournament has been some of the best I've been involved with in a Scotland shirt, so we can't really dwell on this performance too much.

"It's a hiccup on our road to something. The performances up until now have been really good so I think we'll just look at this one as a bit of an anomaly. We've just got to move on."

Scotland showed signs of promise against England, Wales and France - albeit in defeat - but failed to score in the second half in Dublin.

"We need to pick ourselves up because going over to Italy is going to be a huge encounter for us. The Italians will have an eye on that win," Morrison said.

"We're going to have to pull together. We've got a lot to play for next week and it's just picking ourselves up and going back to the drawing board and going into this week with a belief that we're going over to Italy to win."

Scotland will travel to Rome seeking to arrest a six-match winless run and earn Andy Robinson a third Six Nations win in 15 attempts. They are likely to be without wing Lee Jones, who was knocked out in the second half and spent Saturday night in hospital. The 23-year-old Edinburgh back, who was winning his fourth cap, was taken off on a stretcher following a sickening clash of heads with opposite number Andrew Trimble, which resulted in a "severe concussion", Scotland team doctor James Robson said.

Four other players were set to require further medical attention - scrum-half Mike Blair (shoulder), centre Max Evans (dead leg), flanker John Barclay (ribs) and number eight David Denton (shin bruising) - with Robinson scheduled to name his team for Rome on Wednesday.

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