England need to turn their pressure into more points

ENGLAND’S scrum was well on top at the death and they drove straight through Scotland. But in front of the loud Murrayfield crowd, referee Ben O’Keeffe didn’t seem to want to make the big decision against the home team. If that game was at Twickenham, I think it would have been a different outcome.

The referee should have awarded England a penalty, which would at least have given them the chance to draw. I don’t think anyone could have argued if the game had ended level. But the reason England didn’t win was because they weren’t clinical enough when it mattered.

When England did play heads-up rugby, the result was a try from Marcus Smith. It didn’t happen often enough. Before the late scrum decision, England did have a chance to go for goal. It was within Elliot Daly’s kicking range. Tom Curry decided to go for the corner and I don’t have a problem with that call. England clearly felt their pack was on top.

I thought Curry went well. He couldn’t have done much more as captain.

England won’t be happy to have gone in at half time 10-6 down, having dominated the first period.

In the first half, it seemed England were determined to turn the Scotland defence with kicks through to the back field. There is nothing wrong with that tactic, and at points it was used well.

But at others, England’s back-line stuck rigidly to that plan without recognising the pictures in front of them had changed and that they had numbers to use out wide.

Daly was a guilty party at one point. On another, when the ball went from left to right, Max Malins also put boot to ball when it would have been better to keep it in hand. Both were

examples of giving away possession too easily.

Luke Cowan-Dickie will feel hugely disappointed about Scotland’s penalty try.

The first thing I’d say on that is you never let anyone score in a Test match, so Luke had to try and play the ball.

As a hooker, he’s clearly not comfortable being in those wide areas in defence or catching high balls, so maybe he panicked.

I think he tried to knock the ball back rather than forward, but that’s not what happened. Maybe Eddie Jones will have Luke practising high balls in training this week?

Scotland deserve praise for the way they scored the try. It was very clever play from Finn Russell to use back-to-back cross-kicks and expose England’s front-row forwards.

England had no arguments with O’Keeffe’s decision to award an automatic seven points. And after Luke’s yellow card, England’s discipline started to go. They won’t beat the better sides unless they learn to turn their pressure into points.