England 16-15 Scotland
by David Nicholson
at Twickenham

ENGLAND won a scrappy but enthralling game at the weekend to take the Calcutta Cup for the first time in five attempts after finally beating Scotland.

For the second successive game at Twickenham, the men in white managed to scrape a win by a single point as Scotland’s mercurial fly-half Finn Russell missed his third conversion attempt in the final minute.

The English defence had to be outstanding as they fought off waves of Scottish attacking moves flowing across the pitch, but Russell’s wayward boot made the difference.

England’s fly-half Fin Smith hit a monster penalty over from the halfway line to put the home side ahead by six points in the final 10 minutes.

But minutes later Russell turned down a penalty attempt opting instead for an attacking line out which his side messed up. That three points would have meant the third Scottish try would have won the game.

England captain Maro Itoje had insisted on his side’s penalties being kicked and the nine points along with a converted try saw his side home.

“The performance was a bit mixed. Scotland played a lot in our half and we didn’t exit the way we wanted but we did fight and scrap,” Itoje said.

“We didn’t play as much as we wanted and Scotland played more than us but we were more clinical than we have been.”

This was a scrappy game with both sides making mistakes at crucial times in the pressure cooker atmosphere at Twickenham.

But Scotland’s attack sliced the home side open out wide and despite scoring three tries will rue the missed opportunities, especially in the first half.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “I’m proud of how we played. In the first half, our execution was very good — our contact work was outstanding.

“We scored three tries and will look back and think we could have scored more.

“In a lot of ways it was a better performance than we’ve had down here when we’ve won,” Townsend said.

The Scotland coach said he watched most of the Wales-Ireland game and his team hosts the resurgent Welsh next in Edinburgh

“We will have to put in a big performance against the Welsh and then we travel to Paris for our final game,” Townsend said.

Giant winger Duhan Van Der Merwe was a deserved man-of-the-match and scored the try in the last few minutes that drew the visitors to within one point of England.

While Scotland had the attacking elan, England were winning the battles upfront and dominating the scrum.

At least England are winning tight games now, but the side’s attacking game is not working and they rely on brute force to break defences.

“We have a lot of creative talent and want to play with the ball in hand but Scotland are a good side and we had to find a way to win,” England head coach Steve Borthwick said.

Italy at Twickenham in a fortnight should see an English victory which would be three wins from four games.

“We go to York later this week and our focus will shift to our final two games,” Borthwick said.

If Borthwick manages to sharpen his team’s attack then the fans will be very happy and could see his side in contention for the title if France beat Ireland in Dublin.