Scots vow to bounce back

Scotland have less than a week to throw off the despondency of losing 13-12 to Argentina and focus on their do-or-die Rugby World Cup 2011 Pool B match against England in Auckland on Saturday.

Coach Andy Robinson reported on Sunday that his players were "grieving" in their dressing room, knowing they had let the match and a certain quarter-final berth slip through their fingers.

The disbelief was still evident a day later as Scotland attack coach Gregor Townsend and flanker John Barclay were quizzed at a press conference on what went wrong.

“We looked like we were in control and then just a lapse in concentration against a team who hadn’t been in our third of the field since probably the first 10 minutes of the game, and didn’t look like scoring a try," said Townsend.

“That was the real disappointing thing: that we gave a soft try away when we were six points up. We were in a position to win the game, but we didn’t execute it in the end."

Scotland had plenty of possession and lived up to their pre-match vow to move the ball around, despite the wet and windy conditions making it much harder.

Work harder

Argentina's defence was also equal to the task, keeping Scotland tryless and often being far more effective at the breakdown.

Townsend acknowledged that "lots of things" needed to improve if Scotland were to beat England by at least seven points, to deny them any bonus points.

"We just have to work harder and make sure we’re more clinical with our passing and the breakdown work, because England will test us as much on breakdown as Argentina did. So it’s going to be even tougher for us," Townsend said.

“We’re still in this tournament. The biggest match of a Scottish rugby player’s career is up against England every year in the Six Nations and we’ve got them at the World Cup.

"And we’ve got a goal - we must win and if we can win by more than seven that puts us in a really good position to get through.”

Every belief

Flanker Barclay said Scotland will bounce back against their traditional foe.

“We’ll be confident. We almost beat them in the Six Nations and there’s no bigger stage and no bigger game in a lot of guy’s careers.

"We realise if we lose we go home. We’ve been building to the World Cup for months now and we have every belief in this squad."

Townsend said despite the battering the two sides gave each other there were no major injury concerns in the Scotland camp.

“There were a few knocks. It was a bruising game and I’m surprised there were not more.

“Our second rows are carrying a couple of knocks. Jim Hamilton got a bang to his knee, Kelly Brown took a head knock last night, but everyone should be fit (for the England match).”