6 Nations Round 1: Paterson Upbeat for Scotland Future

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05th February 2007 : 6 Nations Round 1: Paterson Upbeat for Scotland Future

Scotland captain Chris Paterson insists there are positives for his team to take from their opening 42-20 RBS 6 Nations defeat by England.

Frank Hadden's men briefly threatened to repeat last year's Calcutta Cup triumph when an opportunist line-out try on 25 minutes from Simon Taylor gave them a 10-6 lead.

But they trailed 17-10 at half-time and were swept aside in a disappointing second half by an England 25-point scoring burst as Twickenham rocked to the Jonny Wilkinson show.

The Scots rallied late on, with replacement Rob Dewey grabbing a second try, and Paterson, who kicked four goals from five attempts, was able to draw some comfort from the four-try defeat.

"The scoreline is almost identical to the previous three times I've played here but I can seriously say that's the closest I've felt," he said.
"I thought it felt far more competitive and it was a lot closer than the score suggests. England played particularly well but they had to.
"Every time we scored, they got points shortly afterwards and, as the game went on we had to take risks, but I thought the attitude of the guys was immense.
"I said to the guys after 55, 60 minutes, that what was letting us down was the decision-making because we were getting tired.
"As everyone knows, the first thing to go when you're fatigued is your mind but we addressed that and I thought we finished the game strongly."

The turning point came on 55 minutes when winger Sean Lamont failed to deal with Harry Ellis' grubber kick to the line and the returning Jason Robinson pounced on the ball to claim his second try of the match.

Follow up:

Hadden insisted that it was a 50-50 decision, claiming both men touched the ball at the same time, and was even more furious over the decision of video referee Donal Courtney to award a try to Wilkinson when the England fly-half clearly had a foot in touch.

"The one thing I was concerned about all week was that something freakish might have happen to affect the outcome of the game," he said.
"You just need everything to go your way to get the sort of outcome we were after. It was obvious things weren't going to go our way."

Scotland need to quickly re-group for the visit of Wales next Saturday but Hadden is unlikely to ring the changes.

"My first impression is that we felt more competitive than in any away game since I've been involved for 50 minutes," he said.
"I felt we started the game better than we did in all our three away games last year."