Hadden: We're raring to go again

Scotland head coach Frank Hadden has been filled with “so much confidence” in his team by their reaction to Saturday’s Twickenham humbling.

He is likely to make changes to Scotland’s line-up for this weekend’s RBS 6 Nations clash against Wales, and will announce his team tomorrow morning.

But since the 42-20 defeat to England, Hadden has been delighted by the resolve among the Scotland players to make amends and ratchet up their first points of the campaign.

Hadden could bring in two experienced men for Saturday’s Murrayfield clash against Wales – with Nathan Hines and Allister Hogg back in contention.

However he is keen to demonstrate support for those players who left Twickenham full of regret.

“The three tries we conceded in the second half have irritated the life out of us, and they have given [defence coach] Alan Tait sleepless nights – because they were so soft by our standards,” said Hadden.

“But, why do these things happen? Well, although we have made a lot of progress we are still a very young, maturing side; and the quality of our decision-making is not as a sharp as we would like.

“But I tell you, they are so hungry to get better. They really are up for it this week.

“We said before the debrief that winning next Saturday [against Wales] starts with the way we debrief on Monday, and there was a brutally honest session where people accepted that they had made poor decisions at poor times – we will be doing everything to rectify that this week.

“I’ve seen before people just putting their hands up and say ’my fault, sorry’ - but this has not been like that.

“There is a hunger to get better among the players that is exciting – and it gives me so much optimism.

“Let’s not expect miracles straight away, but we know we are good enough to win this game this week.”

Scotland’s performance was given context in the hours after the Twickenham contest, according to Hadden.

He said: “At the dinner after the game on Saturday night you saw so-and-so getting their 50th [England] cap, somebody else getting their 50th cap, and somebody else; and you saw guys coming back into the squad who had experience of winning the World Cup.

“We looked a very callow and youthful bunch by comparison.

“With the players we had available to us last week we thought that dogged persistence allied to an absolutely sensational kicking performance from Dan Parks was going to see us through to the final whistle, and obviously we were disappointed when it didn’t come off.

“In the last three games at Twickenham, England conceded three tries in two matches with South Africa and one against Argentina, so I thought two tries was a pretty fair return.

“Going down thinking it was going to be four or five [tries] was a pipe dream. Our target was to get to 20 points and hope our defence would hold them to 20 points – so, on the one hand, we did get to 20 points; but we were disappointed that they managed to disappear into the distance.”

Hadden’s team began last year’s Six Nations by beating France in Edinburgh, before sliding to a 28-18 defeat against Wales in Cardiff, when Scott Murray was red-carded early in the game.

They will want revenge against Gareth Jenkins’ team, and home support will be a factor Hadden’s side seek to maximise to their advantage.

He is eager to see Scotland show as much passion for the battle as they have demonstrated when discussing it, and expects a much improved performance.

Hadden said: “I expect that we will have a more stable platform this weekend, as anybody would expect playing at home and not at Twickenham, and so I expect there to be more opportunities to play.

“I felt with the limited opportunities we had to play last week we were starting to get quite clever, and showed some good rhythm.

“Hopefully we’ll get more opportunities this week, and as a result we will see some more from our side.”