Scotland are on the edge of  Rugby World Cup elimination after falling to an agonising 16-12 defeat to bitter rivals England.

Chris Ashton's late try gave Martin Johnson's team the victory and means Andy Robinson's men will exit the tournament at the group stage unless Georgia beat Argentina on Sunday.

The Scots made a great start and overcame an early injury to Ruaridh Jackson to take a 6-0 lead thanks to penalties from Chris Paterson and Dan Parks.

England were struggling to cope, especially in the line out and Johnny Wilkinson missed three penalties in a row to give Scotland hope they could secure the eight-point victory required to qualify for the knock-out stages.

But Wilkinson found his range just before the break to put England on the scoreboard before Parks' drop-goal gave Scotland a 9-3 half-time lead.

Martin Johnson's improved after the interval but Scotland still created chances to win the match.

Scotland came agonisingly close to a try when Danielli chipped ahead down the left wing but the ball did not sit up properly and Foden was able to scramble cover.

Paterson kicked the Scots into a 12-3 lead only for Wilkinson to immediately respond with a drop-goal.

The 32-year-old Toulon player had got over his first-half wobble by reducing the deficit to three points with a penalty just after the hour mark.

Scotland went for the elusive try that could have saved their World Cup dream but their hearts were broken with two minutes to go.

A rolling maul from England saw Flood feed Ashton who scored in the corner, before Flood converted to leave Scotland with a mountain to climb.

And so it proved as the referee's final whistle sounded the end of their participation in the tournament.