Match Report: Scotland 31-20 England

Sione’s Tuipulotu spoke in the week of the desperation of his squad and it was best laid out by the captain himself inside the opening minute, his probing grubber not dealt with enough by Alex Mitchell and, after a few bruising phases, and England not rolling away, Finn Russell opened the scoring from in front of the sticks (3-0, 4 mins).

Things got even better for the hosts when, after a brilliantly worked attacking set up the right touchline, involving Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Ben White and Rory Darge, England’s Henry Arundell was yellow carded for deliberately using his hands in the ruck.

Russell and Jones have history of barely believable moments in this fixture and on the 10-minute mark, they created another belter. With no time to think, the stand-off batted the ball along to his outside centre who, with plenty to do, hared home past England captain Maro Itoje to the amazement of Murrayfield. Russell nailed a great conversion to give Scotland a point-a-minute start (10-0, 10 mins).

A no-arms tackle by Luke Cowan Dickie further compounded England’s error-strewn start, with Russell going to touch in what was a precursor to another sensational score.

From that attacking lineout, won by Jamie Ritchie, Russell put Jamie Dobie clear, with Steyn barrelling past at least three defenders before being brought down. From that ruck, Tuipulotu had an enormous expanse and only Ritchie outside him on the left touchline. Unperturbed, the Scotland captain took a step and flung the ball to his blindside flanker who pouched it safely and went over amid pandemonium inside the ground. Russell added the two for good measure (17-0, 15 mins).

Tom Jordan was in the thick of the action as an England maul was held up as Scotland sought to repel the inevitable onslaught, but the English breakthrough came when Arundell was fed by George Ford five metres out for the simplest of finishes, converted by Ford (17-7, 21 mins).

Murrayfield heaved a sigh of relief when Ollie Chessum intercepted a Ben White pass which, in another set of hands, might have led to an instant score. As it was, England took the three on offer from a previous Ritchie offside (17-10, 25 mins).

Ben White tends to enjoy Calcutta Cup afternoons and true to form, the scrum-half got in on the act for the game’s fourth try with less than half an hour on the clock. Russell’s dogged determination afforded him the time to chip a ball through under immense pressure inside England’s 22, with loosehead Ellis Genge attempting to cover, fumbling and allowing the alert White the chance to tidy things up for a fourth try in five games against England. Russell’s golden boot once more converted from the far right touchline (24-10, 28 mins).

England’s response was again expected, if not as telling. After the home side collapsed a scrum on the 22, Ford opted to kick to touch instead of the penalty goal on offer and some smart work from the Scottish pack, in particular from Scott Cummings, safely held the maul up and secured the hosts a put-in.

Arundell was in referee Nika Amashukeli’s bad books before the break again having appeared to take out Steyn in competition for a high ball. After deliberation, it was determined that a 20-minute red card was the punishment for the act – essentially a second yellow card for the English winger.

It brought to an end a most thrilling half of rugby, the headlines of which were three home tries and two cards for the visitors, although Jamie Ritchie’s late knee injury took some of the gloss off a super opening.

Half-time: Scotland 24-10 England

If England’s tactic after the break was to disrupt and dominate the Scottish set piece, their plan played out within a few minutes when Ford clipped over a penalty after Zander Fagerson was whistled for bringing down a scrum (24-13, 44 mins).

England were in the ascendancy despite their man disadvantage, and it took an outstanding Scottish holding up of a maul to deny them further scoreboard inroads.

But arguably the game’s seminal moment was to be played out on the 53-minute mark. George Ford, in the pocket and lining up a routine drop goal, was charged down by Matt Fagerson, who had Huw Jones on his shoulder, the centre motoring up the middle of Murrayfield for his second of the afternoon; a 25^th international try. Russell added two more to put Scotland firmly back in the box seat (31-13, 53 mins).

The next score would either represent a lifeline for the visitors or the wrapping up of proceedings for victory and it looked like the former when Elliot Miller Mills swooped to tackle Alex Mitchell with the scrum-half for all money sure to go over for the try on the hour mark.

It was then Scotland’s turn to get the jitters when the line beckoned, eventually penalised for going in off their feet at the end of a 20-phase attacking set. It was all rather nervy, and understandably so.

When England were called for an offside inside the final 10 minutes, convention might have opted for a pop at goal to extend Scotland’s lead to 19, but convention isn’t in the remit of Darcy Graham, whose tap and go and slaloming run almost brought ultimate dividends before being brought down a good few metres short. His try-saving tackle on Freddie Steward moments later more than made up for it.

Ben Earl’s counter with three minutes left on the clock barely brought a whimper from the masses, such had Scotland’s defensive dominance been (31-20, 77 mins) in seeing out a famous Calcutta Cup victory; their third in a row at home.

Scotland: Tom Jordan (Bristol Bears), Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Jamie Dobie (all Glasgow Warriors); Finn Rusell (Bath Rugby), Ben White (Toulon); Nathan McBeth (Glasgow Warriors), George Turner (Harlequins), Zander Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings (all Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Ritchie (Perpignan), Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey (both Glasgow Warriors).

Replacements: Dave Cherry (Vannes) for Turner, 50 mins), Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Mc Beth, 48 mins), Elliot Millar Mills (Northampton Saints) (for Z Fagerson, 50 mins) Max Williamson (Glasgow Warriors) (for Dempsey, 56 mins), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) (for Ritchie, 40 mins), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) (for White, 57 mins), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) (for Dobie, 74 mins), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Jordan, 68 mins).

England: Freddie Steward, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, henry Arundell; George Ford, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Heyes, Ollie Chessum, Maro Itoje, Guy Pepper, Sam Underhill, Ben Earl.

Replacements: Jamie George, Bevan Rodd, Trevor Davison, Alex Coles, Henry Pollock, Tom Curry, Ben Spencer, Fin Smith.

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: Andrea Piardi (FIR) and Gianluca Gnecchi (both FIR)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
FPRO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)