Ali Price admits victory at Twickenham for the first time in 36 years may not be enough to salvage Scotland's miserable Guinness Six Nations campaign.
But the Glasgow scrum-half reckons an unlikely victory for the Dark Blues against Eddie Jones men in London next Saturday would be the perfect pick-me-up as his side looks to bounce back ahead of this year's World Cup.
Gregor Townsend's side entered this year's Championship with designs on the title.
But self-inflicted defeats to Ireland and France killed off any hopes of them making a charge for the crown.
There were encouraging signs despite losing out to Wales 18-11 on Saturday as a brave second-half fightback almost derailed Warren Gatland's men from their Grand Slam bid.
But it is now three defeats on the spin and Price was left to confess that even beating the Auld Enemy in London for the first time since 1983 would not be enough to mask the disappointment of this year's let down.
He said: "I don't know if a win down there would make this campaign satisfactory.
"Obviously, we're disappointed with how we've done.
"We wanted to come in and compete to win and we've failed on that front.
"But moving on towards the summer with the World Cup coming, it would give us something to build on.
"We parked the France game, put on an improved performance against Wales, now if we can go down to Twickenham and get a win then you can say we're building again. Then who knows what can happen after the summer."
Scotland's injury-hit squad suffered fresh pain as Tommy Seymour and Blair Kinghorn limped off midway through the first period.
As Townsend re-jigged his team, Wales took advantage of confusion in the Dark Blues ranks to score through Josh Adams and Jonathan Davies.
Darcy Graham dived over as Scotland came out swinging after the break but there was no late drama as Wales held on to win.
It was another dose of disappointment for a team that has failed to deliver on the promise of 2018 but Price insists his side will suffer if they head south feeling sorry for themselves.
"We're desperate to win and we weren't far away yesterday," he said. "It hurts.
"But there is no better place to bounce back and finish this tournament off on a high that going down to Twickenham and winning.
"They've got a brilliant home record against us and we can't get away from that – but it's a new occasion, a new game and it's 23 guys against 23.
"We can't go down there feeling sorry for ourselves and let them take advantage of our vulnerability.
"People will say we've got nothing to play for – but we've got pride to play for, Scotland to play for.
"We can't go down there thinking this is the last game so let's just get it out the way. That's a shocking mentality.
"We want to put our all in and come away with a win."
