The Scots beat only Italy at Murrayfield in the third weekend of the tournament. Their RBS 6 Nations ended with a 26-12 defeat at Twickenham in the Calcutta Cup.

The boot of Chris Paterson brought the visitors back into it, but Mathew Tait's late try sealed England's win.

"One win out of five is obviously disappointing," said Blair. "We put ourselves in a position with 10 minutes to go against England where a really special upset was on the cards.

"You can't hide from the fact that we haven't won enough matches to be where we want to be, but it is extremely tough winning international rugby matches - the competition is white-hot and the margins are tiny.

"Ultimately we believe in the quality and the depth of the squad and we believe in the way we are preparing for matches. If that's judged not to be good enough we take that on the chin.

"I am proud of the progress we have made. We were the youngest team at the last World Cup and that was just two years ago. There is plenty of opportunity for this young squad to develop.

"I couldn't have been more excited about the opportunity this week. We felt we were starting to look slick in training, we were starting to show that we knew what we were trying to achieve.

"But I can't hide behind results. There are plenty of ways to measure progress, but ultimately that is the way the fans will measure it. I fully accept that.

"It's individual basic errors that are letting the opposition into the game. That's not something the coaching staff can deal with. That's for the players to deal with."