England manager Martin Johnson urged his side to use the "horrible feeling" stored inside them following a 20-16 loss at home to Ireland when they resume their Six Nations campaign away to Scotland.
England rallied from 13-6 behind to go 16-13 in front with eight minutes left after a converted try from Dan Cole, the prop's first in Tests, was supplemented by a Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal.
However, Ireland hit back when Tommy Bowe scored the second of his two tries when, at full tilt, he ran onto a well-timed pass and beat Wilkinson before rounding Ugo Monye for an expertly taken score to end England's hopes of a grand slam.
"It is a tough, tough loss," said Johnson.
"I thought the guys played very well. They got themselves back into the game and got themselves ahead. It was a tough game, either team could have won it," England's 2003 World Cup winning captain added.
"We did a lot of good things. I thought it was a good performance. It was wet, muddy and we were playing Ireland so it is going to be difficult.
"Have we lots to get better at? Yes, we have. It is frustrating for us all because there were chances."
"But we only took one in the second half and they scored two."
"That was probably the difference."
"It is a very tough loss to take and we will work that through.
We will be better for the game.
"I said to the players they have to keep that horrible feeling inside of them for two weeks and release it at Murrayfield.
"We come back to play Scotland, who will be playing that game to save their championship (after Saturday's 16-12 loss away to Italy)."
Scotland, regardless of results in other matches, usually manage to rouse themselves for the visit of England and Johnson will know better than anyone that the Red Rose's last two visits to Murrayfield have ended in defeat.
Bowe put England on the backfoot as early as the fourth minute with a well-taken try that owed much to Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton's superb grubber kick behind the home defence.
Sexton, in only his third Test, may have missed four out of his five goalkicks but Wilkinson, whose placekicking is one of the cornerstones, of his game, had a below standard return of three from six for the second match in a row after England struggled to see off Italy 17-12.
Worryingly for Johnson, neither Wilkinson, nor centres Riki Flutey and Mathew Tait, were able to give England the tactical direction that was provided for Ireland by Leinster playmaker Sexton.
Meanwhile, up front, man-of-the-match Jamie Heaslip gave Ireland the edge at the breakdown with the No 8 forcing several turnovers.
Sexton was involved in the sharp move that led to a try for Keith Earls, Ireland's other wing, in the 56th minute.
The build-up to that score stemmed directly from a scrum penalty conceded by England scrum-half Danny Care for dumping Ireland counterpart Tomas O'Leary on the Twickenham turf.
South African referee Mark Lawrence initially ruled in England's favour and Johnson was unhappy with his decision to reverse the penalty.
"Games turn on things like that," said Johnson.
"In a game like that, is that a penalty reversal? They jumped in just as quickly (in the subsequent melee).
"I don't think it was a penalty, personally but it was given.
"Even then we came back but it was disappointing to concede a penalty with the last play of the game when we had driven them back 25 yards."
"It's hard when there's six minutes on the clock, you're there and you lose." he told the BBC.
Johnson added that the late defeat was "a hard loss" and said the team was a "work in progress" and they would benefit from the experience.
"We didn't help ourselves - when you get ahead you need to stay there, the game turns on those things," he said.
"It was good play from them and not good defence from us."
The game was played in poor weather conditions but Johnson described the game as "typical Six Nations, pretty attritional," and said occasionally England were their own worst enemies.
"At times we tried to play too much and got turned over," he said.
"Maybe we should have pegged them back and put them under pressure, it comes back to the same old things - if you take chances and score tries you'll probably end up winning."
.jpg)
