It’s heartbreaking, says Robinson as he laments the lack of tries

The lack of tries. Scotland scored four against Romania in their first pool match but failed to get across the line in their subsequent three matches, including yesterday’s 16-12 defeat by England at Eden Park. Had they scored one try against Argentina and one against England – and they had chances to do so – it is odds-on they would have been preparing for a World Cup quarter-final match with France in Auckland on Saturday.

Robinson last night paid tribute to his squad of 30 who, in dominating Argentina and England for large spells, proved themselves competitive with teams who will be in the last eight, but he acknowledged that their failure to match these teams’ quality of finishing had been their undoing.

The national coach has a contract through to 2015, when the next World Cup will be hosted by England and, while he has targets built into that, and reaching the World Cup quarter-finals is likely to have been one of them, the SRU appears happy with his progress and he is keen to continue the job he has started.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Robinson said, “but I’ve got to say the guys gave it everything. I think the ambition is there, but sometimes it’s trying to play in the right areas and understanding how to do that. It’s about being able to win three or four phases of quick ball. You saw Mike Blair take a quick tap-penalty [against England] and we need a player on his shoulder, but that ball got turned over. We need everybody on the same wavelength.

“It’s getting all 15 players able to work together and it’s coming. It is coming, but it’s going to take a bit more time. I feel extremely proud of the way the team has gone about testing a very good opposition [England], but everybody is absolutely gutted at losing this game of rugby.

“These guys, all 30, have got to take massive pride in the way they carried themselves in this tournament, not only the friends that they have made but the way they have gone out and played rugby.

“I couldn’t ask any more from them today except for obviously scoring more points than the opposition, and we got very close to doing that.

“Everybody is going to be hugely upset, those supporting Scotland, about what’s happened [in the World Cup] and now we’ve got to be able to understand that and learn the lessons. But we have to work hard to still improve the way we want to play which is with ball in hand.”

His opposite number Martin Johnson was similarly complimentary of the Scottish side and admitted that with five minutes to go and his side 12-9 down he had settled for defeat and just wanted the team to keep the deficit below eight points to ensure that England got the bonus point required to top the pool.

“I thought whoever scored the first try today was going to get over the line and that turned out to be true,” Johnson said. “I think we kept our nerve and we got on top of them and eventually got rewards for it.

“There was chaos out there, penalties and free-kicks, our scrum creaked, boots in rucks, and balls coming out the wrong side and getting kicked downfield, and all that chaotic stuff you have to deal with, but we finished it off. I wouldn’t say we were clinical, far from it, but I would say that we had the character to win the game.

“Having watched Argentina’s game with Scotland last week, I think this has been a very gritty group. Scotland were physical and threw everything at us, and made it a difficult game to play in. That is what the tournament is about. It’s real competitive, tough football, fighting to get to that next level.

“We never talked about losing the game and getting the bonus point before the game, but at 12-9 in the 70th-whatever minute you’ve got to defend what you’ve got, so we did a good job territory-wise mainly there. And then when an opportunity came we took it.

“It would have been a strange one to have gone through with a defeat, so the guys did well in the last ten minutes.”

Robinson might have been quite sanguine, but when pushed for his feelings on witnessing his side press the self-destruct button of losing a restart again, the first one having cost them the try and the game against Argentina, and last night helping hand England a foothold back in the match, cutting a 12-3 lead to 12-6, he said: “You’re asking me ‘how can it happen again?’ I agree. It’s something that we’ve got to be really ruthless about. It shouldn’t.”

He took responsibility for the late high kick move deployed by Dan Parks, which gave away ball when Scotland were attacking the England 22, insisting he wanted the win-or-bust move in a bid for the try that would have earned Scotland an eight-point win.

For the second week running, however, it was Scotland’s opponent who came up with an unexpected match-winner.

From that, said Robinson, there were clear lessons in how to finish chances, and why Argentina and England will be playing next weekend in the quarter-finals while the Scots join the likes of Canada, USA, Japan, Namibia and Fiji watching on the television.

“These guys [England] have come through two tough games and won them, and kept their heads,” said Robinson. “They were under huge pressure, created by a Scotland team playing well, and they found a way to win a game of rugby. That’s what it is about and that’s what we have to be able to learn.

“These games are cut and thrust and it’s about the inches. Missing a restart at 12-3 and suddenly it becomes 12-6 and you can’t relieve the pressure in that way. That was where they got on the front foot, from that restart. It’s small margins and everyone will have their opinion about the game, but still I was really pleased with the way the guys went about it.”

On the slim remaining chance that Georgia might today beat Argentina and hand Scotland a route back in at the Pumas’ expense, he added: “We’ll be supporting Georgia. The Tonga result [the Pacific Islanders beat France] was obvious ly a big upset and we hope that Richie Dixon brings something out of the Georgians.”