VERN Cotter last night heaped praise on the effort and attitude of his Scotland players after they ran the All Blacks so close at Murrayfield, declaring they will learn from the experience and become even better as a result.
The scoreline was the best the Scots had achieved against New Zealand since a 25-25 draw in 1983 and the head coach was delighted with the performance, although disappointed with the result.
Cotter said: "I think it's fair to say we got close. We have to say we're disappointed. But when you look at what the players did on the pitch, as a coach you cannot be unhappy to see that effort and that desire and determination.
"I feel for the players. We always knew this game was going to give us something and I think it gave us a lot of positive things. The review after last week's game was really honest and the players had a really good look at themselves.
"This game gave us a chance to look at ourselves against the world's best. There were a lot of really good things in the game, but there will be things we want to improve.
"That's the nature of this group; they want to improve. They are a young group of players who want to move forward. They are disappointed now, but tomorrow will be looking forward to another opportunity to put the jersey on and go out and play."
The Scots now face Tonga at Kilmarnock's Rugby Park on Saturday. Before then, Cotter will have to check the fitness of players who took knocks yesterday. Centre Mark Bennett and prop Euan Murray both had to be helped from the field after picking up injuries.
Scrum-half and captain Greig Laidlaw backed up Cotter's general feelings about yesterday's game. "For large parts of the second half we played really good rugby," said the Gloucester player. "It is tough to take when you get that close."
Laidlaw made his international debut against the All Blacks in 2010 and played against the world champions again two years later. However, he was clear that Scotland had a more confident mindset ahead of yesterday's match and that that approach had helped to keep the game competitive almost to the end.
"I think it's fair to say that there was more belief," he said. "In defence, we never sat off them, never waited to see what they were going to do to us. We tried to impose what we wanted to do on them and for large parts of the game I felt we succeeded.
"They are the best team in the world and there were obviously going to be times when we were under a bit of pressure. But apart from a couple of plays we contained them pretty well. We just came up short at the end.
"We just need to be comfortable when we get into these tight games and these positions. We need to learn as a team that once we are in these positions we can go on and win."
Cotter added that he was happy with the progress the side has made since he took over six months ago, but stressed more work still has to be done.
"Today was encouraging," the coach said. "I thought there were some really positive things out there. We will be working on keeping the pressure on the opposition and creating momentum to get more points. I think that was a great effort.
"Nobody likes losing -these guys least of all. That's encouraging. That's a quality. They are a young group and are enjoying their rugby, which is really important. We weren't far away, but we are honest enough to say that we have to try to do better."
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