Steve Borthwick warned England must be prepared "go through some pain" after they were beaten by Scotland in his first game in charge at Twickenham on Saturday.
There was no dream start for Borthwick after he replaced the sacked Eddie Jones as Red Rose head coach in December, as Scotland retained the Calcutta Cup with a 29-23 win.
Duhan van der Merwe starred in an entertaining Six Nations clash, scoring a brilliant solo try in the first half and adding a second five minutes from time to give Gregor Townsend's side a bonus-point victory.
That is three consecutive wins for Scotland over England, who led by eight points early in the second half but were unable to see it out.
Borthwick said: "This is part of the growth of the team.
"We got ourselves in a position when we should have won the Test match in the second half. At 20-12 up, we shouldn't be letting that game get away from us. You have to go through some pain.
"Really good teams would go on and win that.
"We were playing against a Scotland team who have controlled this fixture in recent years. We need to make sure we limit chances and can shut them down."
Borthwick says it is not all doom and gloom after a losing start to his reign.
He added: "We saw some growth, particularly in the attacking side of the game. The game was quicker, but clearly we're disappointed in the result.
"The team in the autumn, if they conceded a couple of scores early didn't come back from that. These guys did.
"Unfortunately we let the opposition back in. We want to be a really successful team that wins Test matches. When you get to that level, you don't give the opposition the opportunities we did.
"I am disappointed for the supporters, who I thought were incredible for us today. We'll make sure we come back here in eight days' time and are a better team."
Italy-England fixture has become a classic – Mancini
Roberto Mancini believes Italy's rivalry with England has become a "classic" as they prepare to do battle in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier on Thursday.
The Azzurri won the last European Championship by beating Gareth Southgate's side on penalties in the final at Wembley in 2021.
Italy and the Three Lions then played out a goalless draw in the Nations League last June, before Giacomo Raspadori secured a 1-0 victory for Mancini's men in their last meeting three months later.
England will get another chance to gain a measure of revenge in a Group C clash at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona this week and Mancini is expecting an almighty challenge in Naples.
He said: "For me, it's become a classic. England and Italy seem to meet a lot, a bit like Italy and Germany in the past.
"For a long time now they've become a fantastic team, full of talented players, with strength and technique. It'll be a tough game just like all the others have been.
"They have more choice than us for many reasons, but in Naples we want to play a good match, play well and start these qualifiers well."
Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar last year and head coach Mancini says they are in a rebuilding process.
"Unfortunately there was the difficult interlude of the World Cup, but apart from a few games, the team has always done well," Mancini continued.
"We arrived twice in the Nations League finals [they face Spain in a semi-final in June], this means that there is value [in the team]. We have to rebuild something important because to win there must be solid foundations. There have been some good things in the Nations League."
Mancini expects his players to do Gianluca Vialli – who was Italy's head of delegation when they won the rearranged Euro 2020 two years ago – proud after he died at the age of 58 in January.
He added: "I've already talked about it with the boys, it will be important for us to remember him, as if he were here with us. He had his space and it's not easy for us, we have to try to do well for him."
Rashford and Pope withdraw from England squad as Forster earns recall
Marcus Rashford and Nick Pope have withdrawn from England's squad for their Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine after sustaining injuries.
As confirmed by Chelsea head coach Graham Potter last week, Mason Mount has also pulled out through injury.
Pope reported an injury following Newcastle United's 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest on Friday, while Rashford suffered a knock during Manchester United's 3-1 FA Cup quarter-final victory against Fulham on Sunday.
Tottenham's Fraser Forster has been called up to replace Pope, though England boss Gareth Southgate has decided not to bring in cover for Rashford or Mount.
Veteran goalkeeper Forster has been getting game-time for Tottenham since Hugo Lloris' injury in February.
The 35-year-old has played 13 times for Spurs this season, keeping five clean sheets with a save percentage of 68.8.
Losing Rashford will be a particular blow for Southgate, with the United forward in the form of his life having scored 27 goals in 44 appearances for his club this season.
England play Italy at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on March 23 before hosting Ukraine at Wembley Stadium three days later.
Mancini defends Retegui call-up and bemoans Italy's lack of attacking options
Roberto Mancini defended calling up Argentina-born forward Mateo Retegui as he bemoaned Italy's lack of attacking options.
Mancini has turned to former Argentina under-19 and under-20 international Retegui for the start of the Azzurri's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
The Italy head coach did not expect the 23-year-old, on loan at Tigre from Boca Juniors, to accept the invitation to play for the European champions.
Eyebrows were raised when Retegui, whose grandmother was born in Italy, was named in Mancini's squad ahead of a Group C opener against England at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday.
Mancini said on Monday: "We've been following him for some time, he has quality and he's a young boy. We didn't think he'd say yes, we hesitated a bit and instead he immediately said yes. The hope is that it can be important, he's a bright and young boy."
The Azzurri boss has changed his stance over calling up players who were born in a different country.
"Years ago I said that players born in Italy should play for the national team, but this problem didn't exist yet and the world has changed." he said.
"All the European national teams have players naturalised from other countries. We have had players who were taken by the national team of other nations.
"And we are doing the same thing. It is useless to talk, in Italy there are few. We are worse off than [England boss Gareth] Southgate, if there is the possibility of taking new we get players."
Mancini is concerned by the lack of options at his disposal.
He said: "In Italy nobody plays on the street anymore. We used to play three-four hours on the street and then we went to train, today this doesn't happen anymore.
"It's no coincidence that players are still born in those countries, such as Uruguay, Argentina or Brazil, where they still play a lot on the street."
Mancini added: "I have no idea why so few forwards come out. we are really very limited in the offensive department.
"We have three teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but out of three teams, there are seven or eight Italians at the most. This is the reality."
Mancini is waiting to discover if Federico Chiesa and Federico Dimarco will be fit to face England in Naples.
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