The consensus view among Scottish fans and media at the moment is that Al Dickinson has been in the form of his life just lately.

At different times he has played second fiddle to Allan Jacobsen and Ryan Grant, but he has lately made the Scotland loosehead berth his own. National scrum coach Massimo Cuttitta believes he would be in the frame if a Lions squad was being chosen today.

Yet the joys of life seemed very far away from the 31-year-old prop as he slouched in his seat at Murrayfield on Saturday evening. Dickinson has known some ups and downs in his 42-cap, eight-year international career, but this was one of the lowest points of all. And not just because of the kick in the wotsits that losing to a last-minute penalty try will always deliver, but because of the expectations that he and his fellow Scots had created amongst themselves in the build-up.

"It is a difficult pill to swallow," said the stony-faced Dundonian. "The honest truth is that we did not take the strides forward that we have in the last couple of games. It was really disappointing. We let ourselves down.

"It is a set-back but we can't be negative. It is disappointing and all the boys are gutted. We have to just put our heads up and take the three weeks as a whole and look at the improvements we have made. We will be very honest with ourselves and look at areas we can improve.

"We have two weeks to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and we have a massive challenge in England."

Twickenham has been the graveyard of Scottish hopes all too often down the years. The Scots have won there just four times since the place opened for business in 1911 and the most recent of those victories was more than 30 years ago. If expectations were too high ahead of the Italy game, the Scots will certainly not carry the same burden as they head towards the Cabbage Patch again.

They might take some ire, though. Dickinson admitted that anger had been part of the mix in the

Scotland dressing room after the Italy defeat, but sheer disappointment was probably the more powerful emotion. He said: "We let the crowd down, the management down, we let ourselves down. That is the hardest thing to take, that we let people down.

"We have a certain game plan but we did not execute well enough today. I can't sugar coat it. That's just the truth.

"We did not perform and were not where we should have been be to beat Italy. It was a setback but we need to keep moving forward. We have taken two steps forward and one step back today. We have to keep progressing."

While no side would ever refuse 10 points in the opening few minutes of a game, Dickinson suggested that Scotland's fast start might have contained the seeds of their downfall later on.

"If you look at the first 20 minutes, we were playing some good rugby," he explained. "We were making half-breaks quite a lot. But we maybe got carried away and should have played the percentages better and turned more of our possession into pressure. We will also look to improve our kicking game as well.

"We will have to sit down as a group and watch the video and sort out what we need to sort out, get back on the training paddock and be humble and keep looking to improve. We have to look in the mirror as individuals and as a collective and look at how we can improve.

"The guys are absolutely gutted. It is tough when you don't get a win, especially after the first two games that we could have won. It is tough to take, but you can't let these negative things affect you.

"We have to go down [to Twickenham] and be positive we can win. It will be huge for England, but who knows what will happen? It is Scotland v England. It is going to be brutal and a big physical game and we have two weeks to rectify what we need to rectify."