SCOTLAND head coach Vern Cotter insists his team can get better after tries from two Glasgow Warriors was not enough to stop Wales recording a 26-23 victory.

The Scots raced into an early 7-3 lead after just nine minutes at BT Murrayfield when Scotstoun pair Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg combined with the former winning a turnover ball before feeding it to his club mate to race down the left flank and over the line.

However, it was to be the last lead Scotland would hold in a contentious encounter that saw Cotter's men appear to have a legitimate try ruled out and deal with a bizarre call from referee Glen Jackson to bring the game to an end with six seconds still left to play.

It meant Glasgow ace Jon Welsh's last-gasp try was in vain, with a loud chorus of boos ringing around BT Murrayfield from a furious crowd clearly irked at the decision not to restart the match.

Cotter is sure that incident will be looked at, but he chose to look at the positives in the narrow defeat.

He said: "There were a lot of things we don't have control over. It's an old coaching thing, I don't want to lose a lot of energy talking about it because it won't change the result.

"We improved from Paris which is encouraging. There are things we need to improve on but they were good things. That will be Monday's job.

"The high balls is something we'll work on. There were other things if we work on we'll gather and have more composure.

"If we train and practice those we will get better."

It's a result which leaves Scotland in a precarious position after just two games in this year's tournament.

Tied joint-bottom on points with Italy thanks to two losses, the dark blues now face a two-week wait before they get the opportunity to put things right against the Azzuri in Edinburgh.

A victory in that match may go some way to patching up a Six Nations campaign which has seen Scotland again become the gallant loser so far.

It's still a vast improvement from where they were 12 months ago in a tournament that delivered just one victory and four defeats.

And captain Greig Laidlaw, who kicked three penalties and a conversion to keep Scotland in the mix against Wales, said: "We talked about the small margins in Paris. But we need to work them to improve our game and I think this group of players are becoming a strong team.

"We are now not far away and we need to believe in that. It's a massive game against Italy and we need to turn up and get a positive result.

"We are absolutely gutted but the performance was there today and it wasn't 12 months ago. The circumstances are different but we are playing better rugby and putting people under pressure.

"We will get over the line, I truly believe that."

Speaking about the performance of the referee in the dying seconds, he added: "I think the referees need to look at it.

"From where I was I thought there was time to take the kick. Whether we'd have gone on to score is another thing, we'll never know now."