England were punished for showing no respect

Jones paid a price for picking a slow back row and turning up without Plan B against Scotland

At the beginning of this tournament, I predicted that no one would win all their games. I believed Scotland would beat England and that England would beat Ireland. I got it wrong about Scotland winning in Wales, but the truth about this being an evenly-matched tournament in which anyone – with the exception of Italy – can beat anyone on their day, has been borne out.

I do not think that England were listening to me, though. By picking such a monstrously big back row against Scotland, they showed no respect. They thought that they could go to Murrayfield and steamroller the Scottish pack. Instead, all they did was pick a pack so one-paced that they were turned over 13 times at the breakdown and conceded 13 penalties.

It was the same in the backs, where they relentlessly targeted Finn Russell, with defenders rushing up on either side in the presumption that after two poor matches he would continue to take wrong options. Instead, Finn showed wonderful hands and vision to ship the ball on quickly to where Scotland could make the most of the broken V-shaped defensive line that England’s blitzing tactics had left.

Lawrence Dallaglio, a veteran of Calcutta Cups at Murrayfield, said during the week before the game that England needed to understand that Scotland would be at least 20 per cent better than they were against France and that they needed to be ready for a battle and with a Plan B. Eddie Jones clearly had not tuned in to that radio show though because, as with Scotland in Cardiff, there was no Plan B.

That was all the more incomprehensible given what had happened against Wales at Twickenham, where England tried to pummel Wales. England clearly do not rate Scotland’s forwards because they arrived at Murrayfield with the same plan. This time it fell apart right from the beginning because their forwards never managed to gain a foothold.

This time it was the Scottish forwards in general, and the back

Townsend’s men realised they had a chance of a turnover at every breakdown

row in particular, who derailed the English juggernaut. I include the front five because they were also magnificent. Jonny Gray stepped up and led the tackle count with 20 but it was the back row who were the decisive factor. Ryan Wilson was magnificently combative and Hamish Watson was brilliant at jackalling over the ball at the breakdown, but it was captain John Barclay who deserves the most plaudits.

It was Barclay’s tactical acumen which kept Scotland on top. He said later that they were not planning to put many men into the breakdown so that they had enough tacklers to confront England’s big men driving around the fringes. But, as soon as the game started, they realised that they were so much quicker to the breakdown than England, and were arriving in much bigger numbers, so that at virtually every tackle they had a chance of turning over the ball.

Gregor Townsend has empowered the players – he said afterwards that it is the players who take these decisions when they cross the whitewash – and Barclay got it spot on.

Even when England won the ball, Scotland managed to slow it so much that it was difficult for them to do anything with it. Jones had clearly decided to keep the ball in hand much more than Scotland expected, largely because he feared the counter-attacking capabilities of Scotland’s back three, while spreading it too wide was problematic for England given how slow their back row was.

I was surprised that it took them so long to bring on Sam Underhill, and even more surprised that he was not red-carded for a no-hands shoulder charge to the head – so similar to the one that got Sonny Bill Williams sent off against the Lions.

If Scotland’s forwards were magnificent, so were their backs. Finn proved what a quality player he is by mixing it up beautifully, with his flat passes so difficult to defend. Peter Horne organised the midfield while Huw Jones proved that he is the best outside centre in the world right now.

The most remarkable thing, though, was Scotland’s work-rate when they did not have the ball. The boys came out pumped up but, unlike sides of the past, they managed to sustain it beyond 60 minutes and finished the game defending like madmen as England tried to get that losing bonus point. The intensity they showed throughout was exactly what was needed.

Now Scotland are off to Dublin to play the best side in this Natwest Six Nations. The Scots do not travel at all well, and need to change that if they are ever to seriously challenge for silverware. What better place to start than in the lion’s den?