Stuart Lancaster today insisted his faith in the England squad had not been shaken by the record 30-3 defeat by Wales.
But he did admit that England had lost their composure during the Grand Slam decider in Cardiff.
With former coaches and players offering Lancaster plenty of advice about how to improve his squad, he maintains progress had been made by his team, who only lost the title on points difference.
Lancaster believes the chastening experience of losing to Wales has given him vital information about the players who will form the core of England’s bid for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
And the head coach, who will take England on tour to Argentina in the summer while the Lions are in Australia, has pinpointed two key areas for improvement.
“We need to take the opportunities to score tries that we create and also improve our ability to retain composure in the heat of battle,” he said.
“Overall, we made progress and have created a great environment and the players responded really well. We put ourselves in a position to win the title and we wanted to find out — after making the transition from the 2011 World Cup — about the players when they were tested at the highest level.
“The next step will be to see how those players who go on the Lions tour handle that pressure, and the Argentina tour will allow us to see the depth of talent we have. The last 20 minutes of the Cardiff game was the most disappointing because we let it slip away.
“As a team we created chances but didn’t take them and that is something we have to improve.”
Lancaster dismissed criticism of selection and claims that the balance of the midfield and back row was wrong going into Cardiff. He was adamant that injuries were a major factor and the loss of Ben Morgan, Alex Corbisiero and Billy Vunipola had been important in shaping the squad.
“Circumstances did conspire against us but we have got good young players coming through and we will have good balance. We are going to Argentina where there will be a hostile environment and we have specifically asked for mid-week games to test a wider pool of players.”
