6N: England v Scotland report: hosts escape to victory after late Finn Russell miss

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England 16

Scotland 15

By STUART BATHGATE

AGONY. We could attempt all sorts of nuanced analysis of this match, but in the end, if you want a concise summary, that single word will surely do. How else to describe the feeling barely a minute from time when Finn Russell, presented with a chance to give Scotland an unprecedented fifth consecutive win against England, was off target with his conversion?

After a century and a half of rugby’s oldest international fixture, it seemed ironic not only that a historic victory should depend on a single conversion, but that the man who missed it should be the one who has surely contributed more to Scotland’s cause over the past decade than any of his team-mates.

It would certainly be hard to think of a crueller way for the match at Twickenham to end, although it should be pointed out that Russell’s last-gasp miss was not the only reason that Gregor Townsend‘s team failed to make it five in a row. The stand-off was also wide with his two conversion attempts in the first half of a match in which his team won the try count 3-1, but his individual failings were overshadowed by the visitors’ inability to turn pressure into more points when they had the opportunity.

Because Scotland dominated the first half, and should really have ended it a lot more than three points to the good. They scored two tries and could easily have got a couple more, whereas England scored one with a lot less of the ball.

It was a big contrast for the Scots to their last match, the home game against Ireland when they went 17-0 down before eventually losing 32-18. They knew they had to start a lot better than that – and that was precisely what they did.

In the opening minutes, Kyle Rowe and Blair Kinghorn both produced confident counter-attacks. And although both of those moves broke down before they could become really dangerous, it was not long before the Scots took the lead.

There were barely four minutes on the clock when Duhan van der Merwe sparked an attack then passed to Kinghorn. The full-back found Tom Jordan, who outpaced the cover defence on the left then passed inside to Ben White, who had a clear run to the line from the edge of the 22.

Five minutes later, England hit back following a penalty to touch on the right. The attack went left from the lineout, and although attempts to reach the goal line by both Tom Curry and Ben Earl were repulsed, in the end Tommy Freeman touched down close to the posts – or at least the referee ruled he had done so, as the replay angles available to the rest of us did not appear conclusive.  Russell, Jordan and Pierre Schoeman all closed on the winger to try to stop him reaching the line, but a smart change of direction ensured he got over. Marcus Smith converted to give England a two-point lead.

Scotland stuck to their attacking game plan despite that setback, and Rowe and Kinghorn continued to threaten the home defence whenever they got a sniff of the ball. Midway through the half, both men were involved in the build-up as Huw Jones got the try that restored their team's lead. After a lineout on the right, Rowe came into midfield then passed to Kinghorn. He passed to Van der Merwe, who offloaded to Jones for a score in the left corner.

Just as the first half looked like ending with Scotland ahead by just those paltry three points, England nearly struck again, against the run of the play.  However, a dangerous break by Marcus Smith came to nothing, so 7-10 it stayed.

Arguably the two most important factors in Scotland’s first-half dominance were their superior dynamism in attack and their ability to keep their discipline. But right from the start of the second half, those two advantages began to evaporate. England replacements Elliot Daly and Chandler Cunningham-South came off the bench and injected real energy into their team, and at the same time Scotland appeared to lose some of their energy – and a great deal of their self-discipline appeared to disappear with it.

In the opening 15 minutes of the second half, the Scots gave away more penalties than they had in the first 40. Marcus Smith equalised from one of those penalties at the end of that quarter-hour, and then 10 minutes or so later added another three points. And when Fin Smith made it 16-10 with a long-range effort ten minutes from time, it looked like the game was up for Scotland.

But they saved their best attacking efforts of the half for those closing stages, and after a Stafford McDowall break and a scoring pass from Kinghorn, Van der Merwe, last year’s hat-trick hero in the fixture, touched down in the corner. It was a dauntingly difficult conversion attempt, particularly given Russell’s earlier misses, and this one always went wide.

There was time for a restart and a lengthy attempt by Scotland to run the ball back from deep, but it – and the match – ended when Rowe was wrapped up in a maul and then bundled into touch.

Although England should be considered fortunate to have emerged as the victors, there is a case for saying they deserved to win. They hung on when they were on the ropes, soaking up punishment until their opponents began to tire. They did what they had to.

As for Scotland, the recriminations that were aired after the loss to Ireland would not be appropriate here. Of course there were shortcomings, perhaps most notably the lack of points of difference on the bench, but there were some real plus points too – the outstanding performance of Jamie Ritchie, for one.  Even so, after two defeats from three Championship matches, and with an apparently resurgent Wales next up at Murrayfield, the coaching team will surely give some thought to how best to re-energise the squad.

Teams – 

England: M Smith; T Freeman, O Lawrence, H Slade, O Sleightholme (E Daly 45); F Smith, A Mitchell (H Randall 62); E Genge (F Baxter 58), L Cowan-Dickie (J George 45), W Stuart (J Heyes 71), M Itoje, O Chessum (T Hill 79), T Curry (C Cunningham-South 47), B Earl, T Willis (B Curry 37). 

Scotland: B Kinghorn; K Rowe, H Jones, T Jordan (S McDowall 65), D van der Merwe; F Russell, B White (J Dobie 65); P Schoeman (J Bhatti 71), D Cherry (E Ashman 54), Z Fagerson (W Hurd 77), J Gray (S Skinner 62), G Gilchrist (G Brown 71), M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey (M Fagerson 54).

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France).

Scorers – 

England: Try: Freeman. Con: M Smith. Pens: M Smith 2, F Smith. 

Scotland: Tries: White, Jones, Van der Merwe. 

Scoring sequence (England first): 0-5; 5-5; 7-5; 7-10 ht; 10-10; 13-10; 16-10; 16-15.

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