Power of Scotland
Townsend’s rampant lions score three stunning tries to send the Auld Enemy homeward, to think again
Coach Jones admits old foe deserved Calcutta Cup win Man-of-the-match Russell delivers riposte to critics
England head coach Eddie Jones says he will take full responsibility for seeing his team’s Grand Slam hopes go up in smoke at BT Murrayfield, where Scotland claimed their first Calcutta Cup in ten years with a stunning 25-13 victory.
Scotland had not scored a try against England at Murrayfield in 14 years, but centre Huw Jones crossed twice and wing Sean Maitland once in the first half as the home side established a 22-6 lead. England hit back through Owen Farrell’s 44th-minute try, but a combination of English indiscipline and Scottish belligerence stopped them adding to that score. Farrell was also involved in a prematch bust-up that Six Nations authorities confirmed could be investigated.
It was only England’s second defeat of Jones’s tenure in 26 Tests and leaves them five points behind Ireland, who beat Wales 37-27 in Dublin in the battle for the NatWest Six Nations Championship. “We knew the significance of the game, we knew what we would get thrown at us at Murrayfield; 65,000 people all passionate about Scotland, you get off the bus and people are yelling abuse at you,” Jones said.
“We knew all of that, but we weren’t good enough to handle it. You have got to be good enough to handle it and we weren’t today. I apologise for our performance.
“They beat us at the breakdown. We did not get our defensive spacing right in the first half and they were able to cut holes in us. That’s disappointing.
“I have got to take responsibility for the performance because we weren’t there. I take full responsibility and I have to work out what I did wrong and work out how to fix it.”
BBC footage appeared to show Farrell, who scored all of England’s points, starting a scuffle with Scotland No 8 Ryan Wilson before the game in the tunnel. That lack of discipline continued with Scotland winning the penalty count 13-7, which included a yellow card for replacement Sam Underhill for a no-arms tackle in the 66th minute that fly half Finn Russell kicked to seal the victory. Asked about the Farrell incident, Jones said: “I don’t know about it. If there was, we shouldn’t let that detract from a great Scotland victory.
“Any time we got momentum, they were able to turn us over or get a penalty, which stifled our attacking game. They contested really well and read the referee superbly and got the reward for it. These lessons you don’t want to have, but they are the best lessons in the world. We will learn a lot from this. Unfortunately, the lesson isn’t sometimes nice to take but it is a great lesson for us.”
Scotland were superb throughout. Flankers Hamish Watson and John Barclay terrorised England at the breakdown, Jones cut England to pieces with his running lines and Russell turned around his poor form in the opening two games to deliver a man-of-thematch performance.
The victory keeps alive Scotland’s hopes of winning a first-ever Six Nations title in the expanded tournament as they travel to Dublin in two weeks to take on Ireland.
“We came very close to beating the No 1 team [New Zealand] in the world in November and we have now taken on the No 2 team in the world,” Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach, said.
“The team has been very consistent and we won the game. We obviously had to play a certain way we believed to win the game, and we executed that very well.”