Battlelost inthe

SCOTLAND interim head coach Scott Johnson blamed his side’s inability to match England at the breakdown yesterday as the principal reason for their defeat, and his viewpoint was supported by official match statistics that showed England won 106 rucks and mauls – almost twice as many as Scotland’s 55.

The scale of England’s dominance was further emphasised by the fact they made 11 line-breaks to Scotland’s three, and made 597 metres in the territorial battle to their opponents’ 225.

All in all, the numbers told the story that Scotland were a distant second best in every area except the set-piece.

“We are disappointed,” Johnson said firmly. “These are areas we have to work on. You can go on about how you want to play rugby, but if you don’t get the contact area right then you can dream all you like because those fairytales won’t come true.

“We lost the battle for field position because of our inability to deal with them. We were poor in the contact area. It’s simple.”

Scotland’s rucking game is a traditional area of strength, but they were given a lesson in how to secure and use quick ball by their English opponents. Johnson acknowledged the importance of that phase of play, but was blunt about the fact Scotland had simply not been good enough to match their hosts.

“We spoke about the improvements