Danny Care and Mako Vunipola struggle to put finger on reasons behind England’s lacklustre defeat by Scotland

Just like their head coach, the England players were at a loss to explain just what went wrong in Saturday’s Grand Slam-ending 25-13 defeat by Scotland.

Both Danny Care and Mako Vunipola, a combination with 126 international caps between them, could not put their finger on what went so wrong at Murrayfield as England suffered only their second defeat in 26 games under Jones. While the win record suggests this was only a blip, it must be said that this was England’s second loss in four Six Nations matches and, more worryingly, the second time that they wilted in a hostile environment after last year’s Dublin defeat.

Having talked down the emotional involvement that Murrayfield can play in the lead up to the Calcutta Cup clash, England felt the full wrath of the Scots. After all, England didn’t have much to worry about – Scotland entered the game having not beaten England at home in a decade and hadn’t even scored a try since Simon Danielli’s back in 2004.

But 38 destructive minutes so England go 22-6 down and inspire the 65,000 tartan-clad supporters pitchside into a frenzy.

“We couldn’t have had a better two weeks preparation,” said Care, England most-capped scrum-half in history. “We thought we’d trained brilliantly. We’d worked hard, the boys were fired up and ready. For whatever reason, they were just up another level to us at the start.

“The try before half time was a bit of a killer blow for us. But we still had the belief we could get back into the game. We were close; a few calls didn’t go our way. If they did, on another day, we could have come back and won the game.”

The big call that Care referred to came not long after Owen Farrell has scored England’s first try to get them back into the game. The Harlequins half-back read a Greig Laidlaw miss-pass, plucked the ball out of the air and was away, destination set firmly under the posts with not a blue shirt in sight. But referee Nigel Owens pulled play back immediately for a penalty in Scotland’s favour, having deemed Joe Launchbury to be off his feet when challenging for the ball in the previous ruck. It was a marginal call, and Owens had not spoken of any penalty advantage, but England were powerless to do anything about it.

“The first half, we let them in with too many points,” Care added. “But we still felt we could come back and get the win. We started the second half well, got an early try, nearly got the interception try, which would have taken us to two points away – and then it’s a different game.

“Obviously that decision didn’t go for us. Fair play to Scotland, they started really well, they were more intense than us in that first half, and if you give away that many soft points, it’s very hard to call it back.”

It was an uncharacteristic England in the first half, and led to a team huddle being called on the field before the team departed for the sanctuary of the changing room – the partisan home fans giving letting sending them off to a chorus of boos.

But while head coach Jones may cut the image of a man not to cross, he is not one to raise his voice for no reason. Had the hairdryer treatment made famous by one of Scottish football’s favourite son’s, Sir Alex Ferguson, been unleashed by Jones, you would not have blamed him. But instead calm heads head prevailed, the squad addressed what was going wrong and how they could rectify it.

Within four minutes, Farrell was over for the try and the comeback, it seemed, was on. It may have inevitably fallen short, but England did at least turn the tables to win the second half 7-3.

“[Jones] was calm,” Care added. “He said: ‘Look, we need to sort a few things out here, try to get back in the game and star well.’ I thought we did that, but it was probably a bridge too far, too many easy points in that first half. In big internationals, especially away from home, it’s always going to be hard to pull that many points back.

“He didn’t go crazy. He just said: ‘We’ve got to learn from this. You can’t win every game’. It’s how you learn from your defeats as well as your wins that make you the team you want to be. For us, it’s about reacting, getting back to training next week. It’s a shame we don’t have a game straight away to get back into it. But a good week’s training next week and we’ll get over to Paris and try to right some wrongs.”

Vunipola echoed Care’s belief, albeit in a slightly more disappointed manner. But the loosehead prop, who needs just three more caps to reach is half-century, did send out a warning not just to Scotland but to the rest of the world that this defeat may just be the catalyst for England to reach the next level.

“The changing room was calm. There wasn’t any raised voices,” Vunipola said. “We all realised that wasn’t good enough. We know we have to learn from it. We know we’re still growing. Right now it’s hurting but come Monday we have to move on, but we won’t forget this game. We’ve got a lot of learnings to take from it.”

Only time will tell if that proves true but, for now, this was not in the plan for England. Neither is the weather forecast, with “The Beast from the East” snow storm that Jones referred to in his post-match press conference due to hit the United Kingdom this week forcing the team into considering their options this week. The Oxford training camp that Jones planned on holding could well be under threat this week as the storm front arrives, and having already taken on one Eastern European front in Georgia over the last fortnight, Jones may want to protect his side from facing another and keep them at their Surrey-based training headquarters to minimise any further disruptions.