Wednesday 24 January 2018 18:21, UK
Gregor Townsend has challenged Scotland to build on their autumn success at the Six Nations but sees England as "clear favourites".
Scotland beat Samoa, fell agonisingly short against New Zealand and finished their three-Test autumn series with a record-breaking victory over Australia.
With the Six Nations starting on February 3, head coach Townsend has challenged his squad to build upon that success over the next two months.
"We want to see improvement from some of the really good play that we saw in November," said Townsend.
"We will be taking each game as a stand-alone game that we can go out, do our best in that game and learn from it and look to get better."
Scotland finished last year's Six Nations in fourth and Townsend, 44, is reluctant to predict a final position this season.
"We'll see. We have high expectations and every team going into the tournament, I imagine, will want to win all of their games and want to do the best that they can.
"But, you've got some difficult opponents and you've got some games to handle and changes to your playing squad."
Scotland start their campaign against Wales at the Principality Stadium, a fixture that they won during last season's Championship for the first time since 2007.
After a meeting with France, England visit BT Murrayfield and Townsend is aware of the challenge his side will face.
"Well, England are obviously the clear favourites and there's a reason why…
"We see teams like England, Ireland and Wales with the pedigree that they have in this tournament.
"They're the last three winners over the last six years, England have done fantastically well over the last couple of seasons and rightly are the No 2 team in the world.
"You've got Ireland as the No 3 team in the world and we've got a very tough game to start off away in Wales. It's great, that's the challenge that we love as coaches and players."
At the Six Nations launch, Townsend also spoke of his meeting with Pep Guardiola having spent a day with Manchester City in December.
"The biggest thing about meeting Pep was seeing a coach so passionate about the details of coaching," said Scotland's head coach.
"It's about how to bring the best out of players, not tactics and the bigger picture, more about the details of how he gets his game over. He was so excited about it.
"He talked a lot about rugby as well, he loves rugby, and how you have to look forward because we pass the ball back. That's a great philosophy that he feels applies to football.
"He didn't say who he would be supporting, but he did get a signed Scotland jersey. He was pleased with that so hopefully he'll have one eye on Scotland."
