Robinson rues familiar failings

Andy Robinson

Published: 7:34am, 5th February 2012
Updated: 10:03pm, 5th February 2012

Scotland head coach Andy Robinson vowed his side will resolve their inability to score tries after all too familiar failings contributed to their 13-6 loss to England in the RBS 6 Nations opener at Murrayfield.

Two Dan Parks penalties handed Scotland a 6-3 half-time lead and put the hosts on course for just a second opening weekend win in 13 attempts in the tournament before he turned villain 24 seconds into the second half. Charlie Hodgson charged down a Parks kick before applying the scoring touch. Owen Farrell converted and finished with eight points on his debut.

Robinson said: "It seems a little bit like deja vu. We've been here before and obviously we're all bitterly disappointed about what's happened."

The television match official ruled against Greig Laidlaw, on for Parks, after 63 minutes, and for all Scotland's endeavour they could not breach the white wall of defenders as England returned home with the Calcutta Cup following a first win in Edinburgh since 2004.

"Winning and losing Test matches is all about inches and those small margins," said Robinson.

"We've not been able to convert the chances again. We've got to be able to take those chances."

Robinson remains without a win over his compatriots in four attempts, with the perennial problems of numerous errors and a continual failure to find the try-line. Robinson has seen his side score 20 tries in his 25 Test matches in charge, but none in the last four games, since the World Cup win over Romania in Invercargill in September.

Chances were there against England, with the ball turned over after Jim Hamilton's early break, Ross Rennie denied by Ben Foden's last-ditch intervention and a knock-on in support of Richie Gray preventing another score.

When pressed on the lack of try-scoring, Robinson added: "We look at ourselves. This is down to us and we've got to stick together.

"We've got to look at what we're doing as a group. I'm accountable for that. I know my responsibility there. I will keep looking at it. We're all accountable for this. It's a team effort that we're about. We're going to solve this together and we will continue to work in that way."