England beaten by Scotland in Calcutta Cup clash
England were beaten 30-21 by Scotland in the third round of the Guinness Six Nations at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.
Tries from George Furbank and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, as well as 11 points from the boot of George Ford was not enough, as Duhan van der Merwe and Finn Russell combined to score all of Scotland's points as they retained the Calcutta Cup.
England struck inside the opening five minutes off a set piece move - Ben Earl picked from the base of a 22-metre scrum, quickly feeding Danny Care who fixed the Scottish defence before shipping it to Ford. England’s fly-half took it to the line before sending Elliot Daly through a gap in the defence, who in turn fixed Kyle Steyn and offloaded into the path of Furbank to dive over the line for his first Test try. Ford’s extras made it 0-7.
Ford extended England’s lead on the 15-minute mark with a simple penalty, but two tries from Duhan van der Merwe within 10 minutes saw Scotland take the lead on the half hour mark. His first was a powerful finish from close range after centres Sione Tuipolotu and Huw Jones combined to break deep into English territory, whilst his second was a superb solo effort from 60 metres out - Russell converted both for a 14-10 scoreline.
A Russell penalty momentarily extended the lead to seven points, but Ford was on hand moments later with a drop goal to make it 17-13 at the break. The half time stats showed a competitive Test: England had more possession (56%), made more carries (45) and beat more defenders (10) than Scotland, with Gregor Townsend's men gaining more metres (190) and boasting more offloads (4). The Match Centre highlighted George Furbank as a standout performer - who made 33 metres and beat five defenders.
Five minutes into the resumption, van der Merwe scored his third try, claiming a Russell cross-field kick and cantering into the corner. The Bath fly-half added the conversion for a 11-point buffer. Ford kept England in the affair with another three-pointer, but two further Russell penalties put the hosts firmly back in the ascendancy.
Only on the field for five minutes, replacement wing Feyi-Waboso gave England a glimmer of hope as he hit a strong line off the base of a poorly guarded 10-metre ruck to score a first Test try on his second appearance, making it a nine-point game with 13 minutes left on the clock.
And despite a late van der Merwe yellow card, the Scottish defence held firm to deny a comeback, and hold on to claim the Calcutta Cup.
Reaction
Jamie George: "We really made it hard for ourselves today. In the first 20 minutes, we probably played the best we have for a while, but then Duhan showed us his world class ability and when you give a team like Scotland 14 points it's going to be difficult.
"We spoke about having a first start. I don't see many issues with how we played in the first half, a few loose balls. But again, if you give the ball to Finn Russell and Duhan they can create magic and they did that. A lot of what we did was good and the endeavour we showed. But we just cannot hand the ball over to a team like that.
"We're very clear on how we want to play, how we want to defend, how we want to attack and how we want to take teams on. We showed signs in attack. But we have to piece things together."
Steve Borthwick: "Credit to Scotland for a really strong performance, they're a team that have been together for a number of years, coach in place for seven years and you see an England team still trying to develop. But if you turn over that much ball it is very difficult to win a Test match.
"We know today wasn't good enough, we know we made too many errors to win the Test match and we'll make sure it's better moving forward."
Teams
England
15. George Furbank, 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ollie Lawrence, 11. Elliot Daly, 10. George Ford - vice captain, 9. Danny Care , 1. Ellis Genge - vice captain, 2. Jamie George - captain, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Maro Itoje - vice captain, 5. Ollie Chessum, 6. Ethan Roots, 7. Sam Underhill, 8. Ben Earl.
Replacements
16. Theo Dan, 17. Joe Marler, 18. Will Stuart, 19. George Martin, 20. Chandler Cunningham-South, 21. Ben Spencer, 22. Fin Smith, 23. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Scotland
15. Blair Kinghorn, 14. Kyle Steyn, 13. Huw Jones, 12. Sione Tuipulotu, 11. Duhan van der Merwe, 10. Finn Russell, 9. Ben White, 1. Pierre Schoeman, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Grant Gilchrist, 5. Scott Cummings, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Rory Darge, 8. Jack Dempsey.
Replacements
16. Ewan Ashman, 17. Alec Hepburn, 18. Elliot Millar-Mills, 19. Sam Skinner, 20. Andy Christie, 21. George Horne, 22. Ben Healy, 23. Cameron Redpath.
Fixtures & Results
- Italy 24 - 27 England
- England 16-14 Wales
- Scotland 30-21 England
- England v Ireland - Saturday 9 March
- France v England - Saturday 16 March
