Hadden accentuates the positives but much harder analysis will be needed

THE word 'progress' buzzed between Frank Hadden and the Scottish players as they strived to remain positive in the wake of another demoralising RBS Six Nations Championship, but much harder analysis will be required for the rest of us to discern the same optimism from this tournament that Hadden has uncovered.

The win over England was a step forward and there was hope in Rome of his side beginning to find a threat with ball-in-hand and off-loading, but, though it led only to defeat this week, that was enough to encourage Scotland's coach that he was on the right lines, and there was reason for optimism.

Hadden said: "Considering the start of the competition, and how far we appeared to have regressed since the World Cup ... we were in a pretty dark place at that stage and had to work incredibly hard to make the progress I feel we have in this championship.

"To lose Nikki Walker (to injury last week] was obviously a bit of a blow and then to lose Simon Danielli in the first five minutes was another blow. But then to go down to a penalty try after ten minutes ... I thought the side showed incredible character to recover.

"It was a remarkable strength of will that managed to get them to a position where I felt we not only dominated and controlled the game, but had we scored in the second half from some of the opportunities we created, we could have gone on to record our best performance ever over here in Italy.

"Sadly, it wasn't to be and credit to Sergio Parisse, a top-quality player, taking a huge gamble and picking out an interception – such are the tiny margins on which games are won and lost; although you normally get forward passes when they're thrown over the line, it wasn't to be for us.

"The penalty count was a big frustration for us, but we were especially gutted for our supporters who came over here and obviously wanted us to do well and we thought we were very close to giving them a memorable performance in Rome."

Last year, Hadden was in a similar position of praising his team's character in coming back from a 21-0 deficit after just six minutes to put themselves in the position to win the game, and similarly regretted the fact they didn't then do so.

But, for all the relatively brief moments of improvement, Scotland again lost four from five Test matches, totally deflating the confidence which circled Scottish rugby at the turn of the year.

So, where exactly did Hadden see progress? He said: "Where we started against France – the quality of that performance – was a bit of a shock to everybody. We didn't win a set-piece in the last half-hour of the game, so there was a lot of work needing to be done on that, and once we solved the set-piece problem against Wales we discovered that our attack wasn't exactly a well-oiled machine and we weren't asking enough questions.

"We made some progress as far as that was concerned against Ireland, but we gave them too many opportunities from turnovers. So, we knew we had to up the quality against England and we did, and we felt confident that we were going to really up the quality and raise the bar once more (against Italy] and I felt we were very, very close to doing that. This is a very tough place to win; they are a very good side full of players who play for the finest clubs in Europe and it was always going to be a difficult afternoon. No-one finds it easy over here."

That much is a given – this was Scotland's fourth defeat in six Tests in Italy – but the question then for the head coach was why his team had regressed so much after the World Cup. He responded by stating: "The preparations just weren't good enough. We had IRB regulation nine issues (English clubs would not release players for an extra training session], trained in extremely difficult weather conditions, had illness, and a constant stream of injuries and unavailability, which meant that the preparations were not as I'd have wanted them to be. In those circumstances, we fought our way back to making some progress.

"Obviously, the side is constantly evolving and we have had to respond to changes in personnel, and we tried to be pragmatic about what the best way for the team to perform is. But I have a lot of optimism for this side. In this championship we've blooded a significant number of young players who have outstanding futures ahead of them and I'm extremely optimistic about the quality of this squad.

"I think we're not far away from making a serious impact and punching well above our weight in future competitions."

As a lesson in accentuating the positive, this was a master-class from the head coach. The questions now move to SRU chief executive Gordon McKie and whether he shares those views.

• Simon Danielli's ankle ligament injury will be assessed further this week. Mike Blair, Allan Jacobsen and Euan Murray all took knocks in Rome.