There's more to come from this England pack

ENGLAND'S win over France last weekend was a huge confidence booster ahead of Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash against Scotland because of the way the team gave themselves an opportunity to win - and the players seized the moment.

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The execution of Elliot Daly's try couldn't have been better, and it meant that the frustration of so many close defeats was lifted. But now the overwhelming thought is can England do it again, against a Scotland side that have beaten them on their last four consecutive Six Nations matches?

There is not the certainty for England that South Africa, New Zealand, or Ireland, would have playing against Scotland, because their previous results do not encourage it. However, the elation when Daly scored had the Twickenham stands rocking, and now it gives England the chance to win this game and erase the feeling of fragility that set in because of their long losing run after beating Ireland a year ago.

People can talk as much as they like about the lost French opportunities and it's clear that the dropped balls by Antoine Dupont and Damian Penaud were certain tries - but the big noise is not what France didn't achieve, but what England did.

The questions that loom now is how strong is England's defence, and how dangerous is their attack? Ireland exposed England's failings in defence, and so, to a degree, did France. Penaud's try was real quality because it showed why the French are the best unstructured side in the world apart from Fiji.

It was exceptional in the way in which they sucked in the English defence so fully that Penaud was able to stroll over untouched.

Scotland do not attack like France, but they will put England's defence to the test in terms of mental sharpness, physical fitness, togetherness and communication. The frustration for any side is when those components are not there at international level after you've trained so much to get the right shape in both attack and defence.