England’s Six Nations is back on track and the championship goes into its final weekend well and truly alive. A try with three minutes to go put England top of the table and they are in control of their own destiny once more.
This was a wild game, far less claustrophobic than proceedings in Cardiff earlier in the afternoon, but no less engaging. England’s pace and ambition was beyond criticism, which God knows it isn’t always, but their execution was a long way short of ideal. If they do end up yielding a first title since 2011 on points difference, they will be sick at the points they failed to convert here. Composure remains a serious problem for England’s lively three-quarters, in particular. Time and again they tore through Scotland’s defence; time and again they failed to take the telling option.
But it would be ridiculous to quibble too much. This was a fine match, a retort to the increasingly vocal commentators who fear the modern game is heading for an apocalypse of defensive stalemate. A cynic might point to the disparity between these two teams in the world rankings as reason for this particular match’s breathability, but Scotland will beat somebody significant soon – who knows, maybe next Saturday. They are nothing if not a threat with ball in hand. England may have bombed chance after chance, but Scotland had a fair few as well.
There were fireworks from the off. England were the first to erupt, which they did spectacularly. In the first 20 minutes alone they racked up more try-scoring chances than have been seen in practically the entire Six Nations to date. From the very kick-off, they mauled aggressively enough to allow Ben Youngs to put George Ford away and he sent Luther Burrell bearing down on Stuart Hogg within the first minute.
Let’s pause a moment to pay tribute to Scotland’s last line of defence, for without his try-saving tackles they would have been buried in those early exchanges. This is the era of the full-back in international rugby, and Hogg showed why he is every bit as much the world-class practitioner as all those others wearing 15 on the international stage. Burrell and Anthony Watson could not contrive the finishing of the try between them, summing up England’s day, but Hogg did what he had to, which was flatten the charging Burrell.
Not that that was the end of Scotland’s trials. Jack Nowell was having a much better game under the high balls, of which there were plenty, and he sliced through the Scottish defence at will. But his composure in the wide-open spaces let him down, a microcosm of England’s problems generally.
Mike Brown is above such criticism and made a typically all-action return to the fray. He developed one of Nowell’s breaks, and Ford, another absolved from blame, expertly pulled the ball back to Jonathan Joseph on a fine line for the game’s first try in the fifth minute.
Scotland were spinning and the killer blow seemed certain to follow when Brown was through again, towards the posts this time. But of all the world’s great full-backs none is faster than Hogg, who turned and ran him down within the 22. Courtney Lawes, though, back in the engine room and looking superb, sacked Finn Russell behind his own try line and England drove the Scots back at the scrum.
Some might have awarded a penalty try but Romain Poite settled for just the penalty. The next scrum went in the same direction too, but Poite this time decided that Joe Marler, notwithstanding all we know about the rationality of humans, had deliberately infringed. And so Scotland lifted the siege. More importantly, England were a mere seven points ahead.
Even more unlikely in the context of the opening quarter of an hour, Scotland then seized control of the ball. They found considerable joy themselves with ball in hand, causing no end of havoc down the right wing. That was where Mark Bennett dummied his way over for a fine try at the start of the second quarter, after Tommy Seymour scythed through from a lineout on the left. Then Matt Scott, Dougie Fife and Bennett worked their magic again down the right, and Scotland were to within inches with a huge overlap. But Dan Cole went for the ball and was lucky to escape with just a penalty as punishment, as were England. The same again two minutes before the break, when a brilliant Brown tackle thwarted Seymour on the switch again and Scotland could not nail the overlap. Nevertheless, their extra penalty in the second quarter earned them a three-point lead at the break.
The breathless craziness continued after the break. Nowell tore through again. This time his break was developed by the rest, and Ford ghosted through between Euan Murray and Rob Harley to re-establish England’s lead.
They kept coming, Ford slotting a penalty to extend the lead to seven. Still, they came. Tom Youngs was clean through and passed to no one; then Watson was and did not pass at all. The clock crept into the final 10 minutes. Tom Wood was through, and Kieran Brookes spilled his pass. But England won another penalty from the scrum. Ford clattered it against the woodwork, which sparked the passage that led to that final try. Billy Vunipola, whose rampaging form is becoming one of England’s keenest weapons, and Brookes put in some heavy-duty carrying, and Ford sent Nowell over in the corner.
It was a try to put them in the driving seat entering the final weekend, separated from Ireland by a points difference of four and from Wales by 25. Scotland, who entertain Ireland next Saturday, may yet do them a favour, but England now face the awkward proposition of a visit from France, the one team who could beat them. Or lose to them by 40. If it’s to be the latter – and a likely Six Nations title as warm-up for their World Cup – composure is what England must work on next.
England Brown (Cipriani 77); Watson, Joseph, Burrell, Nowell; Ford, B Youngs (Wigglesworth 67); Marler (M Vunipola 60), Hartley (T Youngs 51), Cole (Brookes 67), Attwood (Parling 51), Lawes, Haskell (Wood 67), Robshaw (capt), B Vunipola Tries Joseph, Ford, Nowell Cons Ford 2 Pens Ford 2
Scotland Hogg; Fife, Bennett, Scott (Tonks ht), Seymour; Russell (Hidalgo-Cline 73), Laidlaw (capt); Dickinson (Grant 60), Ford (Brown 60), Murray (Cross 55), Hamilton (Swinson 48), J Gray, Harley (Beattie 67), Cowan, Denton (Ashe 55) Try Bennett Con Laidlaw Pens Laidlaw 2
Referee Romain Poite (France)
Att 82,284 Rating 7/10
