Scots 'must win' remaining Nations Championship matches

Scotland must win all their remaining matches to salvage their Nations Championship campaign after their humbling at the hands of New Zealand, Ewan Ashman has stated.

The Edinburgh hooker became only the fifth man in Test history to score a hat-trick of tries against the All Blacks as the Scots went toe-to-toe with the number two ranked side in the world in the first half.

Trailing by only three points at the break, Scotland were blown away in the second half, conceding 19 unanswered points as the All Blacks pulled away for a 43-21 victory.

Gregor Townsend's side now must pick themselves up to face Australia on Sunday, followed by matches against Japan and a trip to Twickenham to face an as yet unknown southern hemisphere opponent on finals weekend.

Ashman says Scotland will be targeting three straight wins to round off the campaign.

"That's the goal," he said. "That's what you have to do. That's the business side of it. We need to win the rest of the games.

"We can do more and we've got to do more in the next few weeks. I'm excited for that."

Despite the dispiriting nature of the defeat by the All Blacks, Ashman insists there are positives the team can take.

"I think there's a load of good stuff in the first half," he said. "Obviously, the maul was probably a strength of ours today, which we'll take a lot of confidence from, and hopefully we can carry that forward.

"The backs even getting involved. They were working hard, Huw Jones and Sione [Tuipulotu], so credit to them probably for my tries, making me look good as usual.

"Also, just some of the shape in attack. I think we were on top of them at times in that first half.

"To know we've got so much more to give is something that I take massive confidence from. You'll see that in the next few weeks, hopefully, when we come back here and put on performances that we're proud of."