Evans: Composure needed

Scotland's perennial problems were all too evident in Saturday's 13-6 loss to England which leaves Andy Robinson's men facing another disappointing RBS 6 Nations campaign.

Robinson and his charges insisted now was time to deliver on their potential, but Scotland remain with one win on the opening weekend of the championship in 13 attempts.

Robinson has seen his side score 20 tries in his 25 Test matches in charge, but none in the last four games, despite a free-flowing style which has seen Scotland run at defences and create opportunities yet repeatedly fall short.

Against England, chances were present - a Ross Rennie break snuffed out by Ben Foden, a knock-on in support of Richie Gray preventing another score and Greig Laidlaw's effort ruled out by the television match official - and Evans is remaining optimistic.

"There's by no means any need to panic," Evans said.

"It's not that we can't score tries and break teams down. We broke England down and just weren't able to finish it off.

"If you look at Ross Rennie's pass to Mike (Blair), an inch earlier and Mike's got it and probably going under the posts.

"It's the very small inches. That's all it is to me. It's nothing to do with confidence.

"The fact that we're trying to play this game, which is a great way of playing when we get it right, is credit to how confident we are to do that, to play at that speed.

"It's about doing it in the right way and at the right time."

Evans suggests Scotland need to show more composure, recognising when to vary the tempo of their play in order to cut open the opposition.

"What we're trying to do is play this quick game where we get quick ball, put pressure on and run other teams off their feet," he added.

"There are times when we're doing that and we just run out of numbers - we can't play at that speed all the time.

"At this kind of level, this kind of intensity, guys can't work at that rate for that period of time.

"It's about doing that for periods, noticing that we're low on numbers, slowing it down and doing a few phases to build it back up and going again.

"For me, that's what's going to make the difference and I'm going to bring that up and I'm sure it will be taken on board."

Scotland were leading 6-3 at the interval, but 24 seconds after the restart found themselves behind when fly-half Dan Parks delayed over a clearance kick, allowing opposite number Charlie Hodgson to pounce.

Parks, who readily kicked away possession in the first 40 minutes, might find his 67th Test was his last, particularly after the decisive error and Laidlaw's performance as his replacement.

Laidlaw maintained he had got the scoring touch on the ball ahead of Ben Youngs in the 63rd minute, but after countless replays, it was ruled downward pressure was not applied.

The Edinburgh half-back may get another chance to be Scotland's playmaker in Cardiff next weekend, when Evans will make a return to the Millennium Stadium for the first time since the day his brother Thom's rugby career was ended by a neck injury.

Asked how he expects to feel entering the arena two years on, Evans said: "I won't know until I'm there, but it's pretty emotional.

"My focus will be on my performance and the game itself and something like that won't really bother me, I hope."

Scotland led 24-14 at one stage of the match in February 2010, but confounded by injuries to Thom Evans and Chris Paterson, who suffered a lacerated kidney, lost to a late Shane Williams try.

Despite the setback against England, Castres back Evans is confident Scotland can regroup and win in Cardiff next Sunday.

He added: "Confidence is shattered a little bit, but I know we were on the verge of beating them (Wales) and beating them fairly comfortably last time.

"Those kind of feelings are what we've got to take on, those kind of positives.

"I've got no doubt we can beat Wales at all. It's just about getting it right on the day."