SCOTLAND centre Alex Dunbar is convinced the team can end the Six Nations on a high against Italy on Saturday - as long as they remember what worked well for them in their previous home games.

The Glasgow Warriors back saw his previously solid defensive partnership with Huw Jones ripped apart by England last weekend, as Scotland put in their worst display of the campaign to go down to a record 61-21 defeat. But he is still certain that the team have made progress in the last three years under Vern Cotter - and believes the head coach can leave on a high provided they get back to the form that saw them beat Ireland and Wales in their last two home outings.

“We just need to go back to basics,” he said. “We started the Championship well, but things didn't work against England.

“Now we just need to go back to what was working for us in the earlier games - we played some of our best rugby in those first three games. We don't want to go into our shell and not play like the way we know we can. We want to go out and express ourselves and pick off the mismatches that we can find.

“We’ve been building and getting better week on week, but it obviously didn't work at the weekend. I still think we're a far better team than we were a few years ago.We just need to get back to doing what we do well - getting quick balls, putting teams under pressure and scoring good tries.”

Dunbar admitted that the England game made for uncomfortable viewing when the squad gathered to review it earlier in the week. The Calcutta Cup clash got off to a bad start for the Scots when Warriors hooker Fraser Brown was sinbinned in the second minute, and soon got worse as the team as a whole seemed to lost the shape that had served them well in their previous games.

“It was tough to watch,” he added. “There were a lot of mistakes out there. We came up against a very good side who pretty much capitalised on every mistake we made.

“We had an honest debrief of the game, but since then we've been looking to put a few things right looking ahead to facing Italy. It was blunt.

“Everyone knew we played s*** - we didn't need anyone to say it. But everyone put their hands up when mistakes were made.

“We just didn't start well. The card didn't help, but we then slipped off a few tackles and they had a few mismatches which they exploited.

“I made a lot of mistakes defensively. I should have done a lot better. I've looked at that this week and hopefully I can put it right.”

Cotter will name his team today for what will be his last game as head coach before he hands over to Gregor Townsend, and most of the players who underperformed at Twickenham will be given a chance to redeem themselves. Substitute Mark Bennett has been ruled out and his place on the bench could go to fit-again Sean Maitland, while Glasgow trio Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Ryan Wilson all need to pass their head-injury assessments before being cleared to play. Edinburgh No 8 Cornell du Preez could make his first start in place of Wilson, having come off the bench at Twickenham for an international debut that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.