Try scorer Ellis Genge gave ‘the peach’ when he said England’s win over Scotland should “silence the sausages” (media) who have been criticising Eddie Jones’ side this last week.
There were only three points scored in the first half of a game where a two minute phase of play in the middle of the second sealed the win for England.
Captain just cannot find the luck
It wasn’t a mistake that Hogg grounded Ford’s punt in the Scotland end zone. What was almost the mistake from Scotland’s captain was him letting the ball slip out under his own posts which allowed Owen Farrell to touch down for what England thought was the first try of the game in the sixty-eighth minute.
However the TMO ruled that Hogg had placed downward pressure on the ball – with something nearer his belly-button than his hand. But from the resulting five metre scrum England drove forward and Ellis Genge bundled over the try line with help from Mario Itoje and Tom Curry.
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Brutal conditions
The 127th Calcutta Cup was played under brutal conditions with only three points scored in the first half.
Those points came from Owen Farrell’s right boot on nine minutes after Scotland gave away two penalties in the same phase of play.
From the restart Scotland went straight on the attack and made the bold decision to kick to the corner off a Lewis Ludlam penalty. Scotland won the lineout (miraculously, as you’ll see) but the resulting drive led to an England scrum.
Comedy of errors, Act 1: Wonky lineouts
Six lineouts were not even contested for in the first half.
As soon as the soap bar – sorry, ball – left the hands of either Sutherland or George, storm Ciara would take hold of it and blow it off course.
Scotland were first to succumb to this unfortunate fate, losing a lineout on eighteen minutes, then, after Farrell missed the first of two failed penalties, Scotland again lost the lineout as the ball veered off course.
It was England’s turn to throw a wonky restart two minutes later before Hamish Watson won a penalty for Scotland and Hogg’s kick down field was blown back into play and picked up by Elliot Daly who punted in return.
Another of England’s lineouts was caught in the hooley after Farrell punted a Sutherland infringement downfield and four minutes later Scotland – realising perhaps throwing the ball twenty feet into the air when a storm surge is on isn’t the best tactic – attempted to play a short throw-in which was again halted by a combination of the wind and Sutherland’s miscalculation.
Comedy of errors, Act 2: Out on-the-full
In the second-half the comedic series of errors came in the guise of box-kicks.
In an extraordinary passage of play between the restart and the fifty-eighth minute when England standoff Willi Heinz was replaced, England full-backs kicked the ball out on-the-full five times.
England exerted more control on the game when Ben Youngs entered the playing field.
Youngs stopped the rot of England’s wayward box-kicks and made some good carries which helped England win a penalty thirty-five metres left of the posts.
Farrell duly obliged for the Scots and missed, but three minutes later England would score when, from an England scrum in the middle of the Scottish half, Ford punted forward and the covering Hogg dithered before eventually getting the ball down. It wasn’t an error (which it very nearly could have been) but from the next resulting phase of play England’s forwards took the ball and powered over the Scottish try-line.
With ten minutes to go the game was 10-3 to the visitors then, after Ali Price kicked it out on-the-full, England threw up a box-kick which was spilt by Kinghorn, pounced on by Itoje and after a good passage of play by Ben Youngs England were awarded a penalty when Simon Berghan was penalised for coming in from the side.
This time Farrell didn’t oblige the Scots and converted the kick to make it 13-3 to the visitors with three-and-a-half minutes left on the clock.
Hastings had time to convert a penalty and make it 6-13, giving Scotland a vital losing point, before England reclaimed possession and kicked it out to end the match.
While Scotland conceded the Calcutta Cup to their rivals for the first time in three years they did continue the form of winning the analysis battle.
Eddie – Scotland are clearly still the team that like to kick the ball the most in world rugby.
Total kicks in the game: Scotland 30, England 44
Scorecard:
Scotland (0) 6
Penalties: Hastings 2
England (3) 13
Tries: Genge,
Conversations: Farrell
Penalties: Farrell 2
Line-ups:
Scotland: (Backs); Hogg (capt), Maitland, Jones, Johnson, Kinghorn, Hastings, Price, (Forwards); Sutherland, Brown, Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, Ritchie, Watson, Bradbury
Replacements: McInally, Dell, Berghan, Toolis, Haining, Horne, Hutchinson, Harris
England: (Backs); Furbank, May, Joseph, Farrell (capt), Daly, Ford, Heinz, (Forwards); Vunipola, George, Sinckler, Itoje, Kruis, Ludlam, Underhill, Curry
Replacements: Dunn, Genge, Stuart, Launchbury, Lawes, Earl, Youngs, Devoto
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 