Rory Darge admits embattled Scotland must spend the coming days focusing their minds on the reality that they can afford no further slip-ups if they are to have any chance of taking their World Cup campaign beyond the group stage.
The Scots arrived in France in confident mood but fell flat in their opening match as they suffered a chastening 18-3 defeat at the hands of world champions South Africa in Marseille on Sunday.
They will now require victories in each of their remaining three Pool B fixtures against Tonga, Romania and the world's highest-ranked team, Ireland - and possibly even three bonus points - if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.
"I don't think it changes much (mentality-wise), because we would have been going into the next three games with the mentality that we had to win them all anyway, but that is the reality now," said the flanker.
"We have to win the next three games. It was deflating to lose, but we're definitely not out the tournament. We just have to refocus.
"We've got three games we need to win which should sharpen our minds when we come back."
Match highlights
As the Scots lick their wounds following their humbling at the hands of the Springboks, Darge feels it is a good thing they have a full fortnight to recover from such a gruelling - and ultimately fruitless - evening's work in the Marseille heat against the most physically-imposing side in the world.
The Scots have no game this weekend and the players have been given a few days' downtime before they ramp up preparations for their next match against Tonga in Nice on Sunday, 24 September.
"We've got a break, which is good because we put so much into the South Africa game and to come short is tough," said Darge.
"So we'll take a couple of days away from it and then we'll have lots of time to preview Tonga.
"Even if we had won, after putting so much into the game (physically), it would have been huge for us to have a break afterwards.
"It's going to be a big couple of days to reset and then fire back into it and focus on Tonga. We'll wait and see what they do next weekend against Ireland and prepare for them properly."
Watch live coverage of Ireland v Tonga (Saturday 16 September) and South Africa (Saturday 23 September) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen on RTÉ Radio 1 or follow our live blogs on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app.
