England 6-11 Scotland
by David Nicholson
at Twickenham

A DELIGHTED Scotland came, saw and finally conquered Twickenham after a wait of 38 years for victory on England’s home turf.

Scotland secured the Calcutta Cup with a dominant performance that means they have now secured two away wins in succession in the Six Nations, after last season’s hoodoo-breaking victory in Cardiff.

But the magnitude of this victory saw the jubilant team celebrate as though they had won the World Cup.

On a wet and cold February afternoon the two old foes were never going to play open running rugby, and the game was a gruelling forward battle, which Scotland decisively won.

Coach Gregor Townsend’s men had some 75 per cent of the possession and territory and were noticeably sharper in the set piece than the home side.

“Scott Cummings in the line-out had an immense game against some of rugby’s best,” Townsend said.

Scotland took the lead after five minutes with a penalty, and referee Andrew Brace issued his first warning to England captain Owen Farrell about his side’s rising penalty count.

The men in white gave away 10 penalties in the first half and had Billy Vunipola sent to the sin bin after 23 minutes for a high tackle that finally broke Brace’s patience.

England conceded 11 penalties in total compared with Scotland’s four.

With his side’s lack of possession, winger Jonny May saw little ball from his own side but dropped several high balls aimed his way, knocking-on in dangerous areas for his team.

Perhaps to atone for his mistakes — or maybe he was just trying to get warm — May joined his side’s forwards and helped with a series of re-scrums while Vunipola languished in the bin.

That passage of play almost saw Scotland score a try as despairing Duhan van der Merwe tried to latch on to a cleverly floated kick from fly-half Finn Russell.

With so much Scottish possession and with Big Billy sin-binned, a try was inevitable and Van der Merwe got his reward with a well-taken try in the corner.

Farrell managed to claw back three points with a penalty but, like his fellow Saracens’ teammates, looked well short of game time.

Despite a bright opening 35 minutes, Russell showed his less-attractive side as a trailing foot tripped scrum-half Ben Youngs in full flow. Attentive TV match official Joy Neville spotted the foul play and the mercurial fly-half was sent to the sin bin. Farrell slotted the penalty kick to bring England back to just two points behind.

But England failed to score while they had a man advantage and, to add insult to injury, Russell kicked a penalty on his return to give Scotland a small cushion.

Scotland dominated the second half as well and, despite a flurry of substitutions, England were unable to get back into the game.

A downbeat England coach Eddie Jones denied that lack of match time for many of his players was the reason for the poor display. Instead, the coach blamed himself for the loss.

“We could not find a way into the game, and I did not prepare the team well enough. Congratulations to Scotland: they were too good for us,” Jones said.

England will go away to lick their wounds before they tackle Italy at Twickenham next weekend. But they will do well to remember that the Azzurri have never beaten the men in white and a first victory for Italy would be catastrophic.

A first win in 38 years at the home of the auld enemy had Scotland’s head coach believing his side have a chance to do something special.

“We have the opportunity to build on a first win and prepare well for Wales next weekend,” Townsend said. 

With three home games to come Scotland have given themselves a great chance to tilt for the championship. Scotland’s celebrations should end before they entertain Wales at Murrayfield next Saturday and will be optimistic that they can be real championship contenders.