• Interim head coach praises England's resolve and discipline at the breakdown
• There is a lot more to come in attack - Lancaster

 

Stuart Lancaster has had time to review England’s 13-6 Calcutta Cup victory at Murrayfield but says his initial instincts were correct that it was his side’s appetite for the contest and discipline in defence that paved the way for a first win in Scotland since 2004.

England withstood a barrage from the hosts – especially during a frantic second half – making 142 tackles in the game to Scotland’s 42 and Lancaster believes their preparation and decisions at the breakdown proved to be the difference at the crucial contact area.

Talking exclusively to RFUtv, Lancaster said: “During the course of the game, we were making a one or two errors that were starting to cost us but fortunately our attitude and desire to work hard for each other came through.

“Our discipline in defence was the biggest tick in the box for me. We talked a lot – and Graham Rowntree did a fantastic job in preparing the players for the referee – about how we were going to deal with decisions that didn’t go our way. But also our discipline around the breakdown: were you going to contest the ball or were you going to let the ball go?

“I thought we did extremely well in that area and when you’re dealing with that amount of tackles and amount of defending, not giving away many penalties helped us win the game.”

England’s points came through an opportunist try from fly half Charlie Hodgson and from the boot of debutant centre Owen Farrell, who kicked three from five attempts.

England were not able to mount any sustained attacks on the Scotland defence and, though Lancaster says the review will be tough in that regard, he remains confident in his strike players.

“There’s a lot more to come in attack but you aren’t awarded attacking opportunities, you have to earn them," he said. "You need to win the ball and then retain it for enough phases. We’re confident our attack will pose questions.

“The disappointing thing is that we didn’t do that enough and we’ll be tough on ourselves in that regard. But we’ll take the positives as well because the intent was there, we need to work a bit on the accuracy.”