We’re all looking for a wee pick-me-up after Saturday so here it is. At the start of the Six Nations, the vast majority of Scots said three home victories in the Six Nations would amount to a successful championship.

Right now, we are 80 minutes away from achieving that. Now, don’t you feel better already?

No, me neither. Saturday was a sore one to take on a number of fronts, but the biggest disappointment was we just didn’t turn up.

As a player, I suffered major disappointments, through injuries, defeats and even losing games we should have won. It is all part of professional sport. But the worst feeling is when you know that you just didn’t get anywhere near to giving your best.

That’s what will be hurting the Scotland players today but, hopefully, can inspire then to giving the supporters and Vern Cotter a finale to remember this weekend.

I’d hoped for a Scotland win, but knew it was going to take two things; the Scots being on their "A" game and England playing as they had done in the first three games, to have any chance of a result. In the end, neither happened.

Scotland looked like rabbits in headlights at Twickenham, while England, having under-performed against France, then Wales, then Italy, had ironed out all their problems and faults for the Calcutta Cup game and were a class act from the first whistle.

Let’s take it from the off – or, what should have been a sending off to my mind. Fraser Brown’s dump tackle on Elliot Daly was adjudged a yellow card. But I honestly thought it was going to be red given how many views the referee wanted to see of the incident through the TMO.

He did Scotland a favour only making it a yellow. But in the 10 minutes Brown was off, Scotland were 10-0 down – and they never recovered from that. But imagine if we’d been down to 14 men for 70-odd minutes?

At one stage in the first half, England were scoring a point a minute. They weren’t far off doing the same by the end. And it was made easy for them, because our midfield defence was posted missing so many times.

England went route one; straight off the top of the line-out, out along the line to Jonathan Joseph who just powered through the Scottish cover. It was just direct running; no pulling men in, no decoy runners, little in the way of angles, no off-loads. He didn’t need to punch holes in our defence. They were already there.

Our centres were just too far apart and, at that stage in the game, good as our guys are, the inexperience showed.

We just didn’t have anyone making or offering up tactical game-plan changes. There was no on-field crisis management of the situation. So, when England did it again, they scored. And again, touchdown.

Like England being totally outfoxed by Italy and having to wait until half-time to be coached, so we were culpable in the first 40 minutes at Twickenham. Are today’s players that programmed?

That said, we were spooked and, after 20 minutes, we were indulging in some kamikaze rugby, but got away with it. What was Finn Russell doing throwing loop passes across his own try line?

The discipline just went, and we gave away too many daft penalties that allowed Owen Farrell to keep the scoreboard clicking over.

Unfortunately, we're not helped by another string of injuries to key players, and even injuries to replacements in the case of Mark Bennett. You can only name eight "finishers" (to use the new jargon), and the tendency is to go for a five/three split in terms of forward and backs. But I really do think you need someone who can cover the back three, at wing and full-back. I’m not saying we might not have had the same problems with guys going off.

However, at times Scotland looked no better than a 4th XV at club level, with your first-choice scrum-half deputising as a winger and a No.8 throwing in at the lineout. Maybe that was missed in the mayhem, but it just didn’t look very good.

And neither does our prospects of getting bums on seats for the flight down to New Zealand after this result.

I was with Iain Milne, "The Bear", on Saturday and before the game you could honestly make a case for six, seven, maybe eight Scots being on the tour.

In ’83 and ’89 we had a good contingent, and those selections came off the back of results at Twickenham, a win in 1983 (our last, as Iain took great delight in talking up even more at the weekend) and a draw in 1989, which I played in. And we both went on our respective tours. We also, the following year, in ’84 and ’90, won Grand Slams.

Coincidental? I don’t think so. What those Scots who toured New Zealand and Australia learned was brought back and fully utilised during the following Five Nations. We had all grown up, all had old heads.

I just don’t think we are going to have that luxury after Saturday. If we get three or four now, we’ll have done well, because our players were up against quite a few first-picks for New Zealand and, as the result suggests, came off second best.

Ironical that Stuart Hogg, who walked off after just 17 minutes, probably did his chances the least harm. Of the rest, Huw Jones put in a shift and took his scores well.

As Iain Milne agreed with me, it will take a special Scotland team to win again at Twickenham. This one just wasn’t special enough.

But they scored three tries and, while England clocked up 61 points, for me, poor as it appears on paper, this defeat wasn’t as bad as 2001 and losing 43-3.

One penalty for 80 minutes work? Anyone who thinks that was better than Saturday should have a good look at themselves, and, have a change of sport.

Now, bring on the Italians …