Lancaster upbeat despite defeat

England interim coach Stuart Lancaster said he was heartened by his team's display even as they slipped to the first defeat of his reign when losing 19-12 to Wales in the Six Nations at Twickenham.

But he warned a youthful side to expect a "massive" game away to France when they face the World Cup finalists in Paris in a fortnight.

Lancaster, appointed on a caretaker basis after former manager Martin Johnson resigned following a disappointing World Cup both on and off the field, had presided over scrappy wins away to Italy and Scotland in his first two games in charge.

England scored a try in each of those contests, Charlie Hodgson charging down on both occasions.

But they struggled to show much in the way of fluency behind the scrum in Edinburgh and Rome.

However, with Hodgson missing against Wales because of a finger injury, they looked more of a threat with ball in hand as 20-year-old Owen Farrell, shifted to flyhalf from centre in his Saracens team-mate's absence, linked well with recalled midfielder Manu Tuilagi.

Although England didn't score a try in front of a Twickenham crowd of more than 81,000, their first home match under Lancaster gave their faithful followers cause for optimism.

Samoa-born powerhouse Tuilagi was only stopped from scoring a try by a superb tackle from Wales captain Sam Warburton.

Then, with the last play of the game, England wing David Strettle went desperately close only for the video referee to rule in the visitors' favour.

Lancaster wants to become England's next permanent coach but faces competition from the likes of former South Africa and Italy boss Nick Mallett.

Although this match is unlikely to have sealed Lancaster's England future either way, the former coach of the national reserve side was encouraged by the Test team's progress.

"There are lots of things we talked about in training that we began to see coming through," Lancaster said. "The players are hurting which shows how much they care.

"We said to them we have got to use that. We have a massive game in two weeks' time over in France."

Lancaster, who had said in the build-up to Saturday's match that England would need to improve by 10 percent on the opening two rounds if they were to beat Wales, added: "We did improve. The intensity and the pressure of the situation and the inexperience in the squad were all things to test us but we played with credit and did the Rose proud.

"There are lots of lessons we can learn but games at this level are going to be won by very fine margins. It's up to us to learn those lessons and move on and that's part of team development.

"We've been together for less than four weeks and I think we should take credit for how the players have worked."

AFP