VERN Cotter has insisted his side are moving in the "right direction" despite losing against England last night to remain rooted to the bottom of the RBS 6 Nations.
The Scotland coach admitted there may have to be patience before improvements are shown in results after remaining winless in this year's campaign after the 25-13 defeat at Twickenham.
Three England tries - by Jonathan Joseph, Jack Nowell, and George Ford to one by Scotland's Mark Bennett - showed the gulf in the strength in the sides that was not fully reflected in the scoreline.
But Cotter said after the fourth defeat of the campaign: "We played a good team and we played better than we did two weeks ago against Italy. We are moving in the right direction. I saw a lot of spirit, a lot of courage. I saw a good try taken. The players played for each other."
He bemoaned the lack of continuous pressure on England after Scotland had gone in 13-10 at half time. "We may need to be patient to work through parts of the game that need to be improved to match teams such as England."
He added: "A lot of it comes from confidence and we can develop that and develop a hard edge."
There were strong Scotland performances in defeat. Greig Laidlaw was back to his aggressive best and Bennett, the try scorer, was superb.
Laidlaw, the Scotland skipper, admitted he feared the worst after England raced in for their opening try in just four minutes in an early blitz that could have presaged a Scotland capitulation. But he called his troops together under the posts and they heeded his rally- ing call to take a half-time lead.
"I was a little bit worried," said Laidlaw who blamed a "hangover'' from the disappointing loss to Italy for the poor start. "I said to the players: 'Calm down and stick to the game plan'. The response was magnificent."
Bennett said of his try: "I knew I was scoring. It was great work by the boys inside. We got so far over the gainline that if I hadn't scored the boys inside could and should have been asking questions."
He said of the loss: "It was a huge performance compared to that against Italy. We were disappointed and angry by the way we played against Italy so to come out and front up like we did tonight is great."
Of the confidence factor, he said: "We are playing some exciting rugby but we are just two or three little things away from giving a team a hiding. We need to keep refining what we are doing and focusing on the small details."
He insisted the team was not demoralised, adding of the four defeats in this championship: "It is hard to take but we know we are better than the results we have had. That is what is driving us on. We are in a far better place than we were at the start of the tourn- ament. Results have not shown that but as a squad we have the confidence that it's all going to come."
Scotland now face an Ireland team still in with a chance of the RBS 6 Nations title at Murrayfield next week in what will be a diff-icult challenge to avoid a 6 Nations whitewash before Cotter launches his preparations for a World Cup campaign in the autumn.
Stuart Lancaster, the England coach, was relieved to have won the match to set up a possible championship decider against France next week. But there was an air of puzzlement about the narrow margin of victory.
"We should have scored six tries," he said of a match that featured 12 line breaks by England.
"We are obviously delighted to get the win that gives us a chance with the championship. But we missed some opportunities."
He was "frustrated" at not cap- italising on the breaks early in the first half and "concerned after Bennett's try and a Laidlaw penalty put Scotland 10-7 ahead at half time.
"We started well and we felt we could have been 14 points up," he said of the initial English surges. But he conceded: "Scotland played well; and came back in the game."
However, he said his team had been too passive in defence, though that changed in a second half that England dominated.
France now await England in what could be a championship decider and Lancaster admitted: "We will need to sharpen up."
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