While reluctant to criticise the referee, Gregor Townsend admitted that some of his coaching team felt England’s try wasn’t properly grounded in Scotland’s 16-15 defeat at Twickenham. Tommy Freeman, the England winger, was adjudged to have grounded a close-range finish in the eighth minute which drew the home side level after Ben White’s early try. Pierre Brousset, the French referee, awarded the try and TMO Tual Trainini found nothing to overturn the decision. “I didn't really look at it,” said Townsend. “I heard the [other] coaches say it wasn't grounded, but I was on to the next thing which was a kick-off.” It was the first time Brousset had taken charge of a Six Nations match and Townsend thought he “did well” but he did admit to being perplexed at the decision to award England a penalty with 11 minutes remaining after Rory Darge and Tom Jordan had combined to clear Ben Curry from a ruck. Fin Smith landed the penalty from close to the halfway line to move England 16-10 ahead. “I did feel that the decision that counted against us for the winning three points, where we cleared someone out of the ruck, I just don't know how that's a penalty,” said Townsend. “We've moved someone off the ruck and they're two feet off the ground and there was no moving legs above the horizontal. That was an interesting call for us to end up going six points behind. “I thought the referee did well. It was a very good game to watch, which would mean that the referee’s had a big part to play in that. Sometimes you're going to get those decisions and sometimes you're not.” Scotland hit back with a late try from Duhan van der Merwe to reduce England’s lead to 16-15 but Finn Russell missed the conversion to hand the home side victory. Scotland had led 10-7 at half-time through unconverted tries from Ben White and Huw Jones. England’s other points came from Marcus Smith’s conversion and two penalties. Rory Darge, the Scotland co-captain, also felt some of the decisions were “harsh” but was similarly reluctant to criticise the officials. “I mean, it's one of those things that happens in rugby,” said Darge. “Yeah, I thought some of them were harsh, but it was both ways and I think there's no point in getting too caught up on it.” Scotland took a losing point but the result leaves them in fourth place in the Six Nations table, eight points behind leaders Ireland and four behind England. Italy and France play on Sunday. Wales are Scotland's next opponents, at Murrayfield on March 8, and Townsend has backed his squad to lift themselves again despite the England defeat effectively ending their title challenge. “I think it will be not too difficult [to lift them] because we asked them to show who we are as a team today and I believe we did that. Both in attack and defence and the effort that's required to play for Scotland. So a lot of what we worked on and what we showed today, we've got to bring that out in the next two games and there will be tough challenges. I watched a lot of the Wales game today, they played very well [in losing 27-18 to Ireland]. And we know we'll have to build on what we did today. Scotland's replacement loosehead Rory Sutherland pulled out of the game before kick-off due to a back spasm and was replaced on the bench by club-mate Jamie Bhatti. A third Glasgow prop, Nathan McBeth, joined the group as cover. Townsend also reported that Huw Jones was removed from the game in the second half after complaining of a tight achilles.