England v Scotland: Five takeaways as ‘immense defensive shift’ hailed while two ‘massive calls’ leaves Gregor Townsend perplexed
England flanker Ben Earl is singled out for praise.
Following a 16-15 victory for England against Scotland that secured the Calcutta Cup, here’s our five takeaways from a pulsating Six Nations game at Allianz Stadium.
The top line
Duhan almost did it again in the dying seconds of an epic encounter at Twickenham as, for the second round running England won by the finest of margins as Fin Smith and Marcus Smith combined to kick their way to reclaiming the Calcutta Cup.
After a dominant first-half display from the Scots they really should have made more of the territorial advantage to take in a bigger half-time lead, but moments of indiscipline in the last quarter cost them the chance to continue their impressive winning streak against England as an immense defensive shift from the home team saw them win their first Calcutta Cup match in seven seasons.
It was a game that started so well for Scotland, as Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Rowe and Duhan van der Merwe created havoc in the first half as England lost the aerial battle due to a combination of over-kicking and some impressive work in the catch and drop zone from the Scottish trio, as the visitors grabbed three tries, two in the first and one in the second.
But it was an immense defensive shift, led by Ben Earl, and both Curry brothers that was the real difference. The back-row battle was as immense as the midfield collisions themselves, but against a side that’s noted for its attacking brilliance, it was England’s resilience without the ball, together with a poor day from Finn Russell who was zero from three off the tee, that was the key to this win.
The game in numbers
The territorial advantage that Scotland enjoyed in the first half was statistically only matched by their absolute inability to make the most of their time camped in the England half. England made 194 tackles – a Six Nations record this season – and missed only 20, creating 11 turnovers and forcing another 11 handling errors.
The game was one played largely laterally – England managed 246m forward with ball in hand and the Scots, a free-running team by nature, only grabbed 364m, down to the brilliance of the England blitz down the middle.
Out of England’s 20 missed tackles, 14 of those took place down the channels, but with so many handling errors, Scotland never quite managed the recycle momentum that saw Rowe enter the line in the first half to add the extra man, with Van der Merwe breaking all manner of defensive efforts to offload to Huw Jones who scored down the left touchline in a moment of Scottish attacking brilliance.
But, as the adage goes, defence and set-piece wins Test matches, and in both departments England had the edge, dominating the scrums and stealing two lineouts, none more important than the Maro Itoje effort in the dying minutes as he robbed Scotland on England’s 22 as the visitors mounted yet another attack.
With 58% possession and 59% territory, Scotland’s biggest takeout will be their sheer inefficiency with ball in hand, but make no mistake, the sheer ferocity of the English defence, led by Tom Curry and Earl, was their downfall and sometimes you just have to admire a quite magnificent performance on the back foot in adversity.
Intelligence v emotion
The difference in rugby intelligence with ball in hand between these two teams couldn’t have been more clearly demonstrated by the sheer invention and colour of the Scots attack against the monochrome efforts of England.
There seems to be an inherent need in Steve Borthwick’s team to seek contact with shoulder when pace of hand and foot is a far more preferable option. Time and time again, England’s runners chose to cut back in and take contact against a narrowing defence, removing any of the momentum that the initial runs had created. Hampered by the glacial figure of Henry Slade in midfield and lacking any form of territorial or possession control at half-back, England simply failed to make any form of inroads into the Scottish half and had to rely almost exclusively on that incredible defensive effort to see the game out.
Crucially, England won the battle of emotions. Their passion and appetite for contact in attack was mirrored rather more effectively in defence, with immense efforts to keep players on feet and back into the line. At 10, Fin Smith hammered 16 tackles, closing down the directness of Tom Jordan in attack. And, choosing to kick three on 66 minutes when Scotland were on a warning and England had broken France from same position in last round showed a remarkable lack of feeling and intuition for the flow of the match might have been argued was the moment to seize the game and to break Scotland apart, but England, to their credit, were happy to own the scoreboard and keep the pressure boiling, a key and cool decision under pressure that paid off in the final analysis.
Back-row battle
That back-row battle was one to relish.
It was hammer and tongues stuff, with bodies falling hither and thither – but it was one that, despite the brilliance of Jamie Ritchie, who, in Gregor Townsend‘s words, had one of his finest outings for Scotland, England won – and won crucially.
In the middle of the action was Earl, a man that made 13 tackles, five dominant, 13 carries for 67m, easily England’s most effective force with ball in hand and two turnovers.
England benefitted by stacking their bench with three other quality breakaways and each one played their part; Ben Curry came on and made 15 tackles in his 50 minutes on the pitch, grabbing a crucial turnover the moment he strode on, Chandler Cunningham-South made some telling power runs into a tiring defence and even Ted Hill’s two minute cameo saw a couple of crucial interventions that caught the eye.
With Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey also impressing for the Scots, it was a real clash of outstanding loose forwards and it was one of the areas England just shaded, although they’ll perhaps want a little more in attack from their back-row moving forward into the last two rounds against Italy and Wales.
Rub of the green
Without wishing to get deeply into referee scrutiny, there were two key turning points in this match that England will claim with glee but Scotland will look back on with some disappointment. They were two massive calls and ones that left Scotland’s head coach Townsend rather perplexed in outcome.
Firstly, the Tommy Freeman try; not one camera angle showed any form of grounding. Referee Pierre Brousset, in a reasonable position, made the on-field call of a try, but several replays showed no contact between ball and turf, with one angle in particular clearly suggesting that Freeman was held up and that there was no obvious grounding. Given the clarity of the information from the replays it was remarkable that the team of officials didn’t choose to check such a big moment properly.
Secondly, we saw Fin Smith kicking England to three points after the referee adjudicated foul play with lifting a man. In Townsend’s words, “We’ve moved someone out of a ruck – they’re two feet only off the ground and they’ve not gone beyond the horizontal. In a game of so many big collisions, that’s an interesting call that saw us go six points behind.”
In fairness, Townsend underlined that it was a great spectacle and that despite the number of penalties Scotland conceded, that the officials had played a big part in the excitement of the match – the definition of damnation by faint praise if there was one.
