The Nil-cutta Cup: abject Scotland in freefall

Scotland 0 England 20

THE BITTER truth of Saturday’s depressing Calcutta Cup loss is that Scotland cannot compete at the moment with England.

No, not even if they hit all their lineouts and the scrum stays reasonably solid. Not even if they play on a glorious summer’s day and get off that abysmal Murrayfield pitch.

Two and a half years ago, Scotland played England twice in six months and could have won both games.

However, since then the development of the two teams has gone in rapidly opposite directions.

Certainly Scotland did not nearly maximise their performance on Saturday, but even if they had, or the few available alternatives to Scott Johnson had come in and performed even halfway better, it is fairly clear we presently don’t have the personnel to match the English powerhouse.

Seven hundred years on from when their antecedents were sent homeward to think again, the 2014 English Army’s only thoughts on returning home were how on earth they managed not to score 40 points and — this one will sting for a good while — how they possibly let a potential Grand Slam disappear in Paris. With Ireland and Wales at Twickenham and Italy in Rome, the English will surely win their remaining games in this year’s championship.

The faint regrets for Scotland from this no-contest are as much clutching at straws as the fervent desire for a storm or the belief that the ploughed field masquerading as an international-quality pitch would somehow discomfort England. In fact, both did far more to hinder the home side.

Sure, fewer brainless penalties in the opening 10 minutes would have helped by not giving England an almost immediate foundation in territory and the scoreboard to dictate the game.

Better tactical kicking from Greig Laidlaw and Duncan Weir might have eased the siege a little. Simple retention of set-piece ball without duress may even have given Scotland a platform to attack a bit.

But even then, first phase is not where this game was won and lost.

It was at the later collisions where England were so far in front of Scotland in impact and execution that almost every contact provoked some kind of problem for the home side.

Scotland did occasionally get to third phase in a possession, trying to launch the athleticism of Ryan Wilson so lauded by Johnson. But such is the ferocity of the English defence constructed by coach Andy Farrell, such is their conditioning and their fitness, that even the tight five forwards were still racing off the line to drive Wilson and other Scots back, killing any momentum.

England play a style of modern, fast, confrontational rugby that looks simply beyond Scotland’s ability at the moment. Our best hope is guile and counterpunch, but the gluepot nature of the pitch negated any chance of that.

Johnson again bemoaned the naivety of the inexperienced members of his side, but for the second week in a row he was aiming at wholly the wrong target.

Alex Dunbar put in a heroic defensive shift again in midfield, Weir tried all he could with all the back-foot ball he was given, Matt Scott did OK for a player who hadn’t started a game since the first week in November.

Chris Fusaro, emotional and pent up before the game, led both teams on his debut with 15 tackles, not missing one. There were precious few turnovers but England’s power at the breakdown erased much opportunity for that, and Fusaro was often on his own scrapping for ball on the deck.

Johnson has also got some self-examination to do there. Fusaro was bluntly told he wasn’t up to the job prior to November yet pitched in to a Calcutta Cup three months later without having radically changed his playing style.

Mixed messages are becoming too

Getty Images. Picture: Matt Scott evades a tackle from Courtney Lawes to set up a Scotland attack.