MERWE-LLOUS Van hits top gear with hat-trick as England crash to a familiar defeat
ENGLAND boss Steve Borthwick admitted his players played like strangers after another Calcutta Cup hiding in Scotland.
Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe, the scourge of Twickenham last year, did the damage with a 25-minute hat-trick which virtually put the game to bed.
Van der Merwe’s triple was the first Scottish hat-trick in this fixture and continued England’s misery against the Auld Enemy.
And things will only get tougher for Borthwick’s men, who entertain Ireland in a fortnight and have to go to France the week after that.
England were beaten at the breakdown, the lineout fell apart after a bright start and their new defensive system was exposed.
The visitors spilled countless balls and Borthwick said: “If you make that many handling errors at this level it is very difficult to win, especially against a team of Scotland’s quality. Ultimately, we made it too easy for them to score but they were very clinical.
“The Scotland team has been together a long time.
“Their 10, 12, 13 have started a dozen Tests together and it is the first time our 10, 12 and 13 have started together. And it looked like it, didn’t it?”
That is four Calcutta Cup wins on the spin for Scotland, the first time they have done that in the Championship since the 1890s, and one out of seven victories for England.
And with the two big dogs in the Six Nations to come, England are probably odds-on to finish with two wins from five yet again.
Borthwick added: “We would all love progression to be in a nice linear path but it is not, especially at this level.
“You see a team that is trying to develop and add layers to their game but made errors today. Sometimes you get
punished for them, sometimes you don’t. It is a really painful lesson.”
And it was all going so well for England for the first 15 minutes.
They led 10-0 thanks to a George Furbank try off a well-worked training ground move and Ford’s boot.
Then the chariot wheels came well and truly off.
Scotland embarrassed England’s blitz defence with Van der Merwe’s first two scores.
Centre Sione Tuipulotu ripped it apart, fed midfield partner Huw Jones and Van der Merwe was over.
For his next trick, Van der Merwe ran in from 40 metres and five minutes after half-time he latched on to Finn Russell’s cross-kick to make it three. Game, set and match at 24-13.
England emptied the bench and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso hit a good line to close the gap but Russell’s boot kept England at bay.
Coach Gregot Townsend said of Van der Merwe: “He was great. We didn’t have much ball and we weren’t in England’s half very often in the first 15 minutes.
“But we unlocked the defence and Duhan was there to support and to finish it. The win is massive.”