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England player ratings vs Scotland | 2021 Six Nations

By Ian Cameron
(Photo by Getty Images)

England player ratings: England came into this fixture having not lost to Scotland at Twickenham in 38 years, which brought its own pressure.

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But they can’t have foreseen the Scottish performance that they faced. It was a group failure on the discipline front by England, and it was a game Scotland very much went out and won.

Here’s our England player ratings:

15. ELLIOT DALY – 5.5/10
Carried twice in the opening minutes, but didn’t have many opportunities to shine in an England team starved of possession. One of the few players that can boast a broken Scottish tackle.

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“I remember Jonny tackling me”

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“I remember Jonny tackling me”

14. ANTHONY WATSON – 5
Another player who just didn’t get an opportunity to perform with England’s negligible possession stats. Was unable to breach the Scottish defensive wall on the few occasions he was able to ask the question.  Hard to fault.

13. HENRY SLADE – 4.5
One of a number of England players’ whose discipline failed in the first half. Missed four of England’s 27 missed tackles. A game to forget for the Exeter centre.

12. OLLIE LAWRENCE – 5
Playing against old mate Cam Redpath, who had the best of it. Looked eager for work and was defensively sound for the most part but touched the ball just once.

11. JONNY MAY – 4
An early knock-on wasn’t the ideal start for the flyer and he soon found himself covering the binned Vunipola in the back row, albeit minus the hilarity of 2016. Other than that he was interested onlooker for most of the match. The weather certainly didn’t help but it wasn’t May’s day.

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England player ratings
Jonny May at No.8

10. OWEN FARRELL – 5
Could do nothing to stop Van der Merwe when covering across in defence for Scotland’s opening try. A slightly agricultural looking through the legs pass suggested he didn’t want to be outdone in the razzmatazz stakes by Russell, but his kicking from hand was spot on. Billed by some as a Lions’ audition, Russell certainly won this one.

9. BEN YOUNGS – 5
A veteran of the English backline, Youngs looked relatively sharp in the opening salvos but why he persisted with his trademark boxing kicking when England needed possession so badly is beyond this rater.

1. ELLIS GENGE – 5
Scotland clearly targeted him. Traded penalties with accomplished Scottish tighthead Zander Fagerson, who seemed to be getting an edge on the Leicester Tiger, with ‘Genge is struggling ref’ getting picked up by the ref mic at one stage. Tackled himself to a standstill in the loose.

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2. JAMIE GEORGE – 5.5
Thwarting Hamish Watson with the help of Genge spoke to the Saracens’ energy levels. Time off from club duty, if anything, didn’t seem to have dulled him.

3. WILL STUART – 7.5
A standout in an otherwise dominated English pack. Got through a motherload of work in defence. At times looked more like an openside than a prop, despite his 6’2, 124kg frame. Gave as good as he got in his personal scrum battle with Rory Sutherland.

4. MARO ITOJE – 6
Two early charge downs very nearly in the Scotland 22 and, Stuart and Curry aside, was one of England’s most effective forward. Against that he was also one of England’s key offenders on the discipline front.

5. JONNY HILL – 5
Another player who whose discipline let him down at times. His crucial steal in the 57th could have been a turning point in the game, but England weren’t up to it.

6. MARK WILSON – 5
No one would question his work rate or heart, as noted by Eddie Joens during mid-week, and the Newcastle Falcon was England’s leading tackler with 9 by the end of the first half. Couldn’t contain Van Der Merwe for Scotland’s try and didn’t offer much in offence.

7. TOM CURRY – 6.5
Was everywhere in the early exchanges, on both sides of the ball. Carried powerfully, but ultimately, as a unit, the back row unit was utterly in the pocket of Scotland’s.

8. BILLY VUNIPOLA – 5
Another Saracen who didn’t look particularly rusty, although a coach-killing yellow card when Scotland had advantage blotted his copybook massively. Was dominated.

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J
Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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