Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has urged for a sense of perspective after their defeat to Ireland at Murrayfield.
He insisted it would have been a big shock if Scotland saw off the defending Six Nations champion.
He said: “We’ve lost to the number two team in the world who are going for the third title. If you take it like that, you go ‘well, it would have been a shock’ if we had won. I think it would have been a massive shock. They were clear favourites but we believed we could win and we worked hard towards a win.
“Playing our next opponent (England) was always going to be difficult (regardless of the Ireland result). We don’t have a brilliant record down there, it’s a very tough place to play but we do have a very good record recently. They’ve just come off the back of winning a great game against France.
“We know how difficult each game in the Six Nations is. We’ve got to obviously play much better next time to have a chance of bouncing back with a victory.”
