Ashton admits patience with players 'wearing thin'
Saturday, 08 Mar 2008 18:39
Brian Ashton "frustrated" by another defeat
England coach Brian Ashton admitted his frustration with his side's disappointing performance after their 15-9 defeat against Scotland at Murrayfield.
Ashton was forced to watch a completely different side come out against Scotland than beat France in Paris two weeks ago and said afterwards "they beat us in every area".
"It is very frustrating. I've always said patience is the biggest virtue a coach can have," he said.
"That starts to wear a bit thin after a while and we need to have a really serious hard think about what's happened today and what's going to happen in the future."
Ashton said England had identified conceding penalties as one area which Scotland could take advantage of and said he had seen exactly this happen to allow five penalties drop between the posts.
His counterpart, Frank Hadden, showed his delight as the final whistle blew and said he was happy for Scotland's "long-suffering supporters".
"It's not easy to maintain your confidence with that level of negativity but that's what we needed to do," he said, adding that was what made the performance "all the more remarkable".
"That win definitely wasn't for the critics. It was for the support we've received in the last couple of weeks," he added.