Mike Brown back in England contention

England full-back Mike Brown is expected to be available for the RBS 6 Nations showdown with Scotland as he enters the final stage of his recovery from concussion.

Brown's tenacity and watertight defence were missed in Sunday's 19-9 defeat by Ireland after he suffered a double setback during the return to play protocols having been knocked out against Italy.

The 29-year-old will undertake full contact training on Thursday and is on course to be given the green light 24 hours later to face the winless Scots at Twickenham on 14 March.

"We're pretty confident about Mike. He's had a reasonable amount of time now and certainly all the signs from everyone, including from Mike himself, is that he's back to 100 per cent," head coach Stuart Lancaster said.

"He has to tick the final box and then I'm sure he'll be training on Friday. He has been symptom free since last week."

Alex Goode deputised for Brown on the afternoon England's Grand Slam dream evaporated at the Aviva Stadium and while he produced some fine moments, he was out-jumped during Robbie Henshaw's try in the key moment of the match.

Goode will play for Saracens at Wasps on Sunday, after which Lancaster insists he will make a call on who starts at full-back against Scotland when the Red Rose seek to revive their title aspirations.

"Both Mike and Alex will compete for that 15 shirt next week," Lancaster said.

"Mike has a lot of experience and does bring a lot to the team, but Alex had a good game against Ireland and dealt with the high balls well.

"If you see Johnny Sexton against other teams, he always seems to find grass with his tactical kicking but Alex managed to cover all those eventualities.

"There was a lot of work that came Alex's way and he did well. I'm keeping an open mind until next week."

Inside centre Luther Burrell has a calf injury but Lancaster is "reasonably optimistic" he will resume training on Tuesday.

Lancaster's immediate impression after England had been kicked into submission by Sexton and his Lions half-back partner Conor Murray was one of a "tight Test decided by small margins".

And having reviewed a defeat that has halted the momentum generated after Wales and Italy were swept aside in an encouraging start to the Six Nations, Lancaster voices his exasperation at failing to deliver during key moments.

"There's frustration that we hadn't delivered the level and quality of performance that we'd hoped to," Lancaster said.

"We knew how difficult it was going to be. It was right up there alongside the Wales game, if not tougher because of the quality of the opposition and the run they were on.

"They're a high-quality team across the board. They have a simple game-plan that they execute well, primarily when Jonny Sexton is on the field. It changed when he came off.

"We needed to be at the very top our game to have got a win over there. We weren't quite and that was the frustration.

"There were moments in the second half when they got the try on the back of an advantage from a penalty. That left us with a big hurdle to club.

"We came back and there were definitely some key moments around the 70th minute when we had a try disallowed.

"You have to be able to control the big moments and we didn't get enough of those to win the game."

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