New head coach Steve Borthwick says England have to go through some pain to grow as a team after they lost 29-23 to Scotland in their Six Nations opener.
The hosts were leading at Twickenham until Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe scored his second try with seven minutes remaining.
It was Borthwick’s first game in charge of England after he replaced Eddie Jones in December.
“This is part of the growth of the team,” he said.
“We got ourselves in a position when we should have won the Test match in the second half. At 20-12 up, we shouldn’t be letting that game get away from us. You have to go through some pain.
“Really good teams would go on and win that.”
Scotland beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years in 2021, and their latest victory is the third in a row against their old rivals at any venue.
England were booed off the field by the Twickenham faithful after their defeat by world champions South Africa in Jones’ final game in charge last autumn, but Borthwick pointed to signs of recovery.
His side will host Italy as strong favourites in their next game in eight days’ time.
He said: “We were playing against a Scotland team who have controlled this fixture in recent years. We need to make sure we limit chances and can shut them down.
“We saw some growth, particularly in the attacking side of the game. The game was quicker but clearly we’re disappointed in the result.
“The team in the autumn, if they conceded a couple of scores early didn’t come back from that. These guys did.
“Unfortunately we let the opposition back in. We want to be a really successful team that wins Test matches. When you get to that level, you don’t give the opposition the opportunities we did.
“I am disappointed for the supporters, who I thought were incredible for us today. We’ll make sure we come back here in eight days’ time and are a better team.”
Borthwick opted to keep veteran Owen Farrell as his captain, and the Saracens back was equally optimistic about the side’s future, with the World Cup seven months away.
“We are at the start of our journey,” said Farrell. “We feel like there has been growth in the performance. There is some stuff that we can be proud of today.
“I guess there were always going to be some errors coming from our first game together but I know these boys will work hard to fix them.”
