FIRST ’CUTTA THE DEEPEST
Jones ‘takes blame’ as blunders sink England
ENGLAND were left to regret one moment of madness from Luke Cowan-Dickie as Scotland fashioned a famous smash-and-grab Calcutta Cup win at Murrayfield.
The England hooker was sinbinned for deliberately knocking Finn Russell’s cross-kick into touch and, with Darcy Graham about to take it five metres out from the try line, Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe awarded a penalty try to tie the scores with 14 minutes left.
A Scotland side outgunned for long periods by the England pack pulled the game out of the fire with the visitors a man down, as Russell put over the matchwinning penalty with eight minutes left.
England coach Eddie Jones (right) said: “Luke’s disappointed – that happens in the moment.
“He played exceptionally well and he is very disappointed, but all the boys are supporting him.
“We lost and Scotland deserved to win. We dominated a lot of the game but didn’t get the points out of the domination.
“It is tough for us to start the tournament like that.
“For a young team, I thought we fought really well, we just didn’t get the result.”
Scotland captain Stuart Hogg, who sent Murrayfield into raptures as he launched the ball into the stands to end the game, was delighted to have retained the Calcutta Cup.
“I’m chuffed to bits,” he said. “We had to absorb a lot of pressure from England and credit to them they were amazing at times, but we stuck to it and came through at the end.”
Scotland took a 10-6 lead into halftime as they fashioned the only try of the half in the 18th minute with virtually their only attack.
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the pass when Marcus Smith overcooked a cross-kick into touch with Henry Slade unmarked out on the right.
Smith made amends in the 53rd minute, tearing through a blind-side hole from Ben Youngs’ pass to touch down without a finger laid on him.
When Smith knocked over his fourth penalty of the afternoon to put England 17-10 up as the Scotland midfield was caught offside, it looked for all the world like it would be a Red Rose day.
But that was Smith’s last act as he was replaced with 16 minutes left to allow George Ford to close out the game.
Instead Russell pulled out his magic wand. A cross-kick to the left put Duhan van der Merwe away and when the ball came back, the Scotland stand-off lasered one to the right for Graham.
The backpedalling CowanDickie desperately batted the ball into touch, but with Graham odds-on to have scored O’Keeffe pulled out a yellow card and awarded a penalty try, for 17-17.
In a flash the momentum switched, and after Joe Marler, given the lineout throwing duties in Cowan-Dickie’s absence, had coughed up possession by failing to propel it the necessary five metres, a seven-man England pack conceded the scrum penalty, which Russell put over.
“I take the blame for that,” said
Jones, after opting not to bring on replacement hooker Jamie George until the fateful scrum.
England, back to full strength for the closing minutes, could still have squared the game.
They turned down a longrange penalty shot, which could have been in Elliot Daly’s range, and thought they should have been awarded a scrum penalty in added time. But O’Keeffe would not go there and one last Scotland turnover from Graham ended the game.
Murrayfield erupted. Jones’s new-look young team had been handed the harshest of lessons.
SCOTLAND: Tries: White, penalty try; Pens: Russell 2; Con: Russell. ENGLAND: Try: Smith; Pens: Smith 4