Gregor Townsend admits Scotland's surprise defeat to the USA has taught him more about his players and how they deal with adversity.
Scotland looked on course to make it two wins from two on tour after building a 21-6 first-half lead in Houston.
However, the Eagles hit back superbly to down the Scots 30-29 and claim their first-ever victory over a tier one nation.
Townsend, who gave seven players their first Test starts as he made wholesale changes to the side that thrashed Canada 48-10, said the performance served as a lesson to him.
He also admitted they need to be "much better".
"We wanted to learn about players on this tour, we certainly wanted to give players opportunities to play," Townsend said.
"Maybe we could have had more off the bench and had more experienced players but sometimes you don't get the guys off the bench that early or get injuries elsewhere.
"We will know more about the players and how they handle adversity away from home against a team that were fired up, especially in the second half.
"It is not good news but at least we came out of here knowing that. We need to be much better."
Converted tries from Blair Kinghorn and George Turner either side of a penalty try saw Scotland leading by 15 points just before halftime.
But the USA fought back in style to take the lead with hooker Joe Taufete'e grabbing a brace of tries, either side of the interval, and Hanco Germishuys also going over.
Dougie Fife crossed right at the end to give Scotland a glimmer of hope, but Kinghorn could not add the touchline conversion as the USA celebrated an historic victory.
"We did not win some of the collisions. The hooker (Tuafete'e) got through a number of tackles, those are areas that are disappointing," Townsend said.
"Their key players stood out for them and gave them that confidence that they could get back in the game, they did get back into the game pretty quickly in that second half.
"Sometimes we put some really good hits in but did not complete the tackle."
Share
