Defeat to Scotland was a 'painful experience' for England - Steve Borthwick

England head coach Steve Borthwick expressed his disappointment at his team's performance against Scotland as they fell to a fourth consecutive Calcutta Cup defeat.

Duhan van der Merwe became the first player to score a hat-trick in a Calcutta Cup game as Scotland edged out England 30-21, handing Borthwick's men their first defeat in the competition.

This was also Scotland's fifth win in seven games against England since Gregor Townsend took charge.

"This is a painful experience for the team and for England supporters, and we will make sure we learn from it to be better in the future," Borthwick said.

"When you make that number of handling errors at this level, it's very difficult to win, especially against a team of Scotland's quality.

"Ultimately we made it too easy for Scotland to score, but they were very clinical.

"It's a huge lesson for our team as we develop. The number of turnovers made it very difficult to win."

England made 24 handling errors and conceded 22 turnovers as they were found wanting in the encounter and Borthwick rued their lack of discipline against a competitive team like Scotland.

"We'd all love progression to be a nice linear path but ultimately it's not, especially when you are trying to do it at this level," he said.

"What you saw is a team that is trying to develop, a team that is trying to add layers to their game.

"We made errors and got punished - sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you don't. Against a team like Scotland, you don't.

"It's a big learning experience, it's a real painful lesson against a Scotland team that's been together a long time.

"There was a lack of cohesion and too many fundamental errors. We know today wasn't good enough. It is going to take some work and we know that."