Scotland will not get many better chances to break their long drought at Twickenham than Sunday’s agonising Calcutta Cup loss, but Chris Paterson believes that it set a marker showing that there is nothing between the teams for their next crucial meeting in September.
The Scots face England in Auckland in a vital Rugby World Cup pool game and if there was any doubt that the 103-cap veteran would go to his fourth tournament it was dispelled by his display in attack and defence in Sunday’s 22-16 loss.
Paterson has tasted defeat six times at English rugby’s HQ but admitted that he felt Sunday’s loss harder than most.
He said, “A defeat is a defeat no matter by how much but it’s sometimes harder to be so close, and this was as close as I’ve been here.
“We’ve had entertaining games with England at Twickenham but that’s the first time we’ve really been in the game in the last few minutes in my time.”
He added, “It shows in that in this championship, as Italy showed on Saturday against France, that anyone can beat anyone, but it’s still so frustrating to be on the wrong side of a tight scoreline like that.
“There are lots of positives, though England threw everything at us and couldn’t quite break us down, and that might be a grand slam-winning side we were playing out there.
“There’s not a lot between us and the next time we play them in Auckland the circumstances will be very different, so we go to that knowing there’s not much between us.”
First up is Scotland’s attempt to avoid a first whitewash since 2004 against Italy, and while Paterson is conscious that the Azzurri will arrive in euphoric mood after their historic win, the Scots already understand the difficulty of their task. He said, “We’ve never regarded them as a weak link or an easy game.
“Perhaps that’ll make people realise how hard it is to play and beat them.”‘The next challenge’He added, “It’s the next challenge. We’ve got six days to get patched up and take them on, but it’ll be the same for them no doubt and maybe they’ll have celebrated quite hard as well.”
While the most experienced player felt that a golden chance had passed, for new man Ruaridh Jackson it was a chance to stake a claim to be the first-choice fly-half.
He put on a far more assured performance than his first start against Ireland, but the 23-year-old is taking nothing for granted.
He said, “It was just nice to get another chance and I felt much more comfortable out there, which is odd considering 75,000 people were against me but maybe that helps me get a different edge.
“It doesn’t change the mindset or the gameplan though, and taking the Ireland game as a building block I brought that experience to this game and built on that.”
He added, “We don’t get that many chances to win down here but didn’t quite make it. The setpiece let us down a bit and England are so strong there.
“Personally I think I’ve put my hand up as a candidate to keep the jersey but that’s a coaches’ decision.
“At the moment we’re going game by game and all I want is to be involved as much as I can for the Italy game this week.”
He agreed that the Italians’ performance showed just how competitive the Six Nations is.’Hats off to England’Jackson said, “There’s not much between top and bottom this weekend has proven that.
“It shows how difficult it is to win a slam and hats off to England for getting into that position, but we could have beaten them and it shows how close it is.”
He added, “Italy will be looking to build their momentum from Saturday but we’ll concentrate on our own game.
“If we’re more clinical and accurate, especially at setpiece, we’ll improve more on what we did in this game.”
Scotland will give ever-present back-rower Kelly Brown, stretchered from the field with concussion early in the second half at Twickenham, every chance to be part of Saturday’s game.
Team doctor James Robson said, “Kelly was concussed but is in good fettle today and is beginning the first stages of the return-to-play protocol.”
Brown will be given cognitive tests and a workout 24 hours after the last symptoms of concussion have cleared, and then after a further 24 hours without reaction can be considered for the game.
A further 11 players from Sunday’s team receivied treatment at the recovery day forwards Moray Low (arm), Richie Gray (neck), Alastair Kellock (foot), Nathan Hines (knee), John Barclay (hand) and Richie Vernon (calf), and backs Max Evans (knee and ankle), Joe Ansbro (calf), Simon Danielli (neck), Dan Parks (knee) and Paterson (shoulder).