Steve Bates believes England are far from the finished article, as they closed their Under-20s Six Nations campaign on a high with a 45-7 bonus-point win over Scotland.
But the Under-20s head coach could see the positives as his side ran in seven tries as they secured third place in the table behind Grand Slam winners Ireland, and France.
They finished the 2019 Championship with wins over France and Italy but defeats away to Ireland and Wales.
And Bates praised his team’s strong finish against Scotland and creative attacking play in the triumph at Franklin’s Gardens.
“We’re making good progress but are certainly not the finished article by any stretch, but we were much more creative, kept the ball for longer and looked more dangerous,” he said.
“We created plenty of opportunities and what we’ve got to do now is look after the ball a bit better. We shouldn’t get carried away with the scoreline, because we certainly haven’t cracked it.
“Until 20 minutes to go it was a still a close game and with the possession we had and the pressure we put Scotland under the points tally should have been greater.”
Meanwhile Scotland head coach Carl Hogg took some positives away from the defeat, as he was impressed by their dogged defence – particularly in the first half.
They had taken the lead through Cameron Anderson and went in 12-7 down at half-time before England pulled away with five second-half scores.
But Hogg was left disappointed at the lack of attacking cutting edge from his side, who finished in sixth place with six points from their five matches.
“I thought we defended really well in the first half, but it was always going to take its toll,” he said.
“As I said to the boys afterwards, it’s like being in a boxing match where we tied our hands behind our back and allowed them to punch us for 80 minutes. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t fire any shots ourselves.
“We looked at resetting ourselves and giving ourselves a really good chance to come down here and perform at a level in line with the progression we showed in the France and Wales games, but we didn’t do that.
“We lost primary possession at set-piece and off strike we turned the ball over in the first two or three phases, I can’t think of many instances where we got beyond three phases, and that’s the disappointing thing.”
