Helen Nelson warned Scotland face a sixth-place finish in the Women’s Six Nations if they don’t cut out the individual errors that plagued them against Italy.
Manuela Furlan scored a hat-trick as Italy saw off Scotland 41-20 to clinch second place in Pool A and set up a game with Ireland for third place next week.
Scotland will host Wales in the fifth-place play-off and centre Nelson insists they must step up their game or risk finishing the Championship without a win.
“We are disappointed,” she said.
“There are parts of that where we played well but ultimately that is not the full 80-minute performance we wanted to put out, so the girls are deflated.
“We did have some good phases of possession in the second half but probably not enough. We were too soft at times and if you make mistakes at this level, teams are going to take advantage of it.
“We are not going to feel sorry for ourselves, we have some time to reflect and a game next week to put it right.
“The belief is there, we are willing to work for each other but it is not all about hard work. We made individual errors and they are things you can’t do. We are frustrated with that.”
Italy scored seven tries in the contest and started quickly, moving 12-0 up thanks to tries from Furlan and Beatrice Rigoni.
Lana Skeldon responded with a try for Scotland and a Nelson penalty reduced the gap to two points but Italy stretched their lead before half-time with a Ilaria Arrighetti try.
Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi secured the bonus point minutes after the re-start and Rigoni scored her second before Emma Wassell got one back for Scotland
But Furlan had the last word with her hat-trick try and head coach Bryan Easson said he was frustrated with the display.
“I am really disappointed, the performance wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“We talked about coming out of the traps quickly but we were 12-0 down and it had us chasing the game.
“We did well to come back to 12-10 but then we conceded tries either side of half-time. The game ebbed and flowed but when we got into the ascendancy, we gave the ball back too easily.
“We missed silly tackles and ultimately we learnt a harsh lesson and there were some harsh words said at full-time. But we have to learn because we have to get better.”
