Andy Robinson wants to rewrite the story of Scotland’s RBS Six Nations from one of missed opportunities to one where the breakthrough began as his team head for Dublin for next week’s final game.
After the 15-15 draw with England went down as another match that might have been won but wasn’t, and another game when Scotland’s lack of tries underlined their recent struggles, the head coach was keen to shift the emphasis away from hard-luck stories to the “special side” he thinks is developing.
“That match has been our season so far but we have to stop talking about that,” he said.
“We have to look at how we’re improving, and also it’s about making that next step. In this game we probably took a half-step.
“There’s a special side that can grow here if you look at the way our back row play. They were tremendous again.
“I thought Graeme Morrison and Johnnie Beattie were our men of the match, they responded to the challenge we made them in the week and it’s all about them doing that consistently, then they can become outstanding international players.”
As for the try-scoring problems, Robinson said, “I don’t think we need to find our confidence — we’re playing with it.
“It’s about being able to sustain that. Nobody’s going to give you an easy score, but we keep working hard and when we get close to the line maybe we do have a bit of white-line fever but we have to work hard on our decision-making.
“Our decision-making away from the line is good. It’s when we get really close that we need to improve, but that’s the learning process.
“We’ll keep working at that and we’ll find it.
“I believe we can stand toe-to-toe against anybody, the way we’re playing, but also in the control we have at set-piece and the control we have at contact.”
Robinson had much to say about referee Marius Jonker’s interpretations before the game, and he wasn’t entirely satisfied at the end, believing that England should have been punished with a yellow card for persistently failing to roll away from the tackle.
“It’s not an interpretation. If you’re off your feet you can’t play the ball-that’s been the law since I played and before,” he said.
“I thought he (the ref) should have been stronger.
“We also conceded a penalty and three points from the scrum and that’s happened in every game now. You look at the small margins we’re not winning games by and it’s a key point.”
The coach is confident that the next step will come in the final match next week, when Ireland will be chasing a Triple Crown.
“The last rugby game at Croke Park — who couldn’t be excited by that?” he asked.
“They’ll want to play and we certainly do.”
Dan Parks revelled in the cheers at Murrayfield in his 50th cap as he provided all Scotland’s points with four penalties and a drop goal, hitting the post twice from another two penalties.
But it was the welcome he received from the crowd at the start that he most noted, given he was booed on his last Scotland appearance at home.
“It was really nice, really pleasing; it’s been well documented what happened the last time I played for Scotland here and this was definitely a happier memory,” he said.
“It made me feel really good and it’s always a privilege to play for Scotland.
“The crowd played their part on the day and it’s just a shame we couldn’t get the win for them.
“We had our chances and I hit the post twice which might have been crucial, but then again Toby (Flood) hit one penalty just under the crossbar and had a kick charged down at the death, so a draw was probably a fair result.”
Scotland’s Kelly Brown and England wing Ugo Monye had to leave the field after an ugly clash of heads in the second half, but both were cleared of serious injury afterwards.