Dazzling solo try leaves England for dead
DUHAN van der Merwe sounds about as Scottish as biltong, but the strapping blond winger was the hammer of Steve Borthwick’s ‘new’ England, scoring two brilliant tries to clinch this nip-andtuck Calcutta Cup Six Nations opener.
The heroics from the South Africa-born Van der Merwe means that Scotland retain the trophy and, after a second successive win at Twickenham, they are now well-established as England’s bogey team, with the Red Rose winning only one of the last five encounters against the Auld Enemy.
It is worth noting here that if Van der Merwe’s first score was a stratospheric effort which left five England tacklers in his wake and will go down as one of the great individual tries, the match-winner which he touched down with six minutes remaining was even more decisive. With England leading 23-22 it took the game beyond the home side’s reach, and gave a Scottish side which went for broke on the counter-attack at every opportunity the reward they deserved.
Scotland’s superior cutting edge and coherence in attack, where they outscored England four tries to three, was typified when fly-half Finn Russell started a move in his own 22 which sprang Kyle Steyn and saw him sprint into England’s half.
When Steyn was tackled a quick recycle saw Russell, who played with guile and ambition even though his kicking was sometimes wayward, move the ball for Matt Fagerson to spin it wide to Richie Gray. The towering lock then produced the pass of his life – an exquisite take-and-give in one step – which gave Van der Merwe a tilt at the line.
There was no stopping the winger as he cut out and in and had the power to ride Max Malins’ tackle and carry him over the line and ground the ball. Russell’s conversion gave Scotland the six-point lead which they held until the final whistle despite a determined late English surge.
However, when the attack eventually stalled, with Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie winning a turn-over penalty after a messy Red Rose attack from a failed driving maul, the game was up as Russell banged the ball into the stands.
This cut to the heart of the difference between the clarity Scotland had with a classic 10-12 combination of Russell as backline orchestrator and the stocky Sione Tuipulotu as first resort ball-carrier, and the tangle that England had with two fly-halves, Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell, at 10-12.
Earlier this week Jeremy Guscott said in The Rugby Paper podcast that Farrell cannot run the lines expected of an international inside-centre, and this means he and Smith are often treading on each other’s toes.
Borthwick decided to continue with this midfield combination despite its failure to fire under Eddie Jones, but with this Six Nations starting with a home loss – albeit narrow – the new head coach has to find a solution fast. The obvious path is to make a choice between either Farrell or Smith, and let one of them run the show at fly-half, with the other on the bench.
The main concern elsewhere was whether it would be same England, same old story, or whether Borthwick could produce the ‘new’ dimension of speed and accuracy he had talked about.
The reality is that it was a mix of the two, especially in a first half in which England looked like a bunch of strangers for the first 20 minutes. Given that he had eight players on the pitch who had been at the core of Eddie Jones’ last five years in charge this was disconcerting, but not especially surprising given the autumn no-show.
England’s stutter-steps allowed the Scots to settle, as did their solid scrum and line-out platform, whereas the home side revisited their ingrained bad habit of giving away soft penalties.
Scotland took advantage when a long throw to Ritchie at the back of a line-out on the England 22 saw Russell put Huw Jones through a yawning gap in the English midfield, and link with Steyn. Two quick recycles later a long pass from Ben White to Tuipulotou saw the centre put through a neat grubber for Jones to race through and touch down.
Russell’s conversion made it 7-0 with 15 minutes played, but England finally found some urgency and camped in the Scottish 22, with Alex Dombrandt, Ollie Chessum, and Ellis Genge tilting at the line. They were repelled, but at a cost, because as Kyle Sinckler linked with Smith the fly-half spotted acres of unmarked space on the right wing and found Ma
lins with a cross-kick that he skillfully snared on the bounce to score his first Test try.
Farrell missed the conversion, and it did not take Scotland long to stretch their lead when Van der Merwe set off from five metres inside his own half on a run which showcased not just his power and pace, but superb balance. It saw him slice past the tackles of Joe Marchant, Chessum, Jack van Poortvliet, and Freddie Steward, before pushing off Dombrandt for a dazzling touchdown.
When Russell hit the post with the conversion the Scots had to make do with a 12-5 lead, and as the improved but far from failsafe England scrum conceded a penalty, it looked uphill.
However, England finally resorted to some hard, direct running which saw Marchant ram down the middle, and from the ruck Chessum, Genge, and Steward moved the ball wide swiftly to Lewis Ludlam. The Northampton flanker injected real pace and energy before putting Malins, a Jones discard, in for his second try just before the interval to narrow the deficit to 12-10.
When a Farrell penalty in the last play of the half gave England a 13-12 lead the match was in the balance and, after the break, the ebb-and-flow continued with Genge driving over to round off a move in which Ben Curry carried like a man possessed.
However no sooner had Farrell added the extras to make it 20-12 than Scotland struck back with an opportunist try from White, with the scrum-half nabbing the bobbling ball at the base of ruck to scoot past Steward and Malins to score. Russell’s conversion made it 20-19 going into the final quarter.
With the game up for grabs, a promising England attack was foiled when Tuipulotu smashed Smith into touch, while the Scots butchered an opportunity when Stuart Hogg made a clean break only to throw a pass a foot over Steyn’s head.
With Dan Cole coming on for a late cameo and winning a scrum penalty, England went back into Scottish territory, and a 64th minute Farrell penalty gave them a 23-19 lead, which Russell promptly pegged back to 23-22 with one of his own.
Enter Van der Merwe again, and no fairytale beginning for Borthwick. England are a work in progress and the coach has an important decision to make at fly-half before they meet Italy in Round 2.