Stuart Lancaster was left frustrated by missed chances, despite England beating Scotland 25-13 on Saturday to go top of the Six Nations table. 

England’s Jonathan Joseph and Scotland’s Mark Bennett exchanged tries in the first-half, before scores from Jack Nowell and George Ford pulled the home side clear, though Lancaster felt they were not ruthless enough. 

“Overall I think from a performance viewpoint we are delighted by the opportunities we created but with the opportunities we missed it is frustrating,” said Lancaster (pictured).

“We created 12 line breaks but only to convert three is frustrating and we will need to sharpen up to beat France. 

“It comes down to execution and the players know that but I haven’t seen many teams pull Scotland apart like we did.” 

Next weekend England host France in the final match of the tournament, which Lancaster admitted is an advantage, as only points difference separates themselves, Wales and Ireland.

“It’s definitely better than the situation we were in the last year — we went to Italy knowing that we needed a good score but then we had to sit and watch that last game. 

“We will know our own destiny come that final game but you can not get carried away as we will only be thinking about beating France.” 

The hosts led early when quick feet from Joseph allowed him to beat Stuart Hogg and scored a fourth try in four matches.

Scotland stunned England when finding an overlap on the right, with sharp thinking from Greig Laidlaw allowing Bennett to score. 

Laidlaw superbly converted then had two penalties sandwiched between one from Ford, giving Scotland a 13-10 lead at half-time.

England started the second half brilliantly, as Nowell broke down the left leading to Ford scoring underneath the posts, before adding a conversion and a penalty. 

Play became error-ridden from both sides and from a Jim Hamilton knock on, Nowell went on to score from the resulting scrum.