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Finn Russell misses shot at glory as England end Scotland run
By PA
Finn Russell squandered a last-gasp conversion for victory as Scotland’s four-year stranglehold on the Calcutta Cup ended with a nail-biting 16-15 defeat to England.
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Fly-half Russell, who has so often been the architect of England’s downfall, fired wide of the left post in the final minute at Twickenham following a dramatic touch down from Duhan Van der Merwe.
First-half tries from Ben White and Huw Jones, either side of a converted score from England’s Tommy Freeman, put Gregor Townsend’s team en route for an unprecedented fifth consecutive win in this fixture.
But the Scots paid a heavy price for failing to turn their early dominance into a greater lead as eight points from Marcus Smith and a long-range Fin Smith penalty turned the contest in the hosts’ favour, prior to the sensational finale.
A fortnight on from a thrilling 26-25 victory over France, Steve Borthwick’s side overcame a dismal first-half display to keep alive their Guinness Six Nations title hopes by the finest of margins as they finally savoured redemption against the ‘Auld Enemy’.
With a win and a defeat apiece from the opening two rounds of the tournament, the rivals came into a pivotal contest each requiring victory to remain in contention for championship glory.
England were installed as heavy favourites by bookmakers but it was Scotland who benefited from a blistering start as Tom Jordan’s burst down the left wing allowed scrum-half White to dive over.
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The hosts produced a perfect response to the fourth-minute setback, with Freeman adjudged to have grounded a close-range finish at the end of sustained pressure before Marcus Smith slotted the conversion.
Yet, after the pulsating, end-to-end action briefly gave way to a more attritional affair, Scotland caused further problems with their pacey attack before deservedly regaining their advantage.
Van der Merwe and Blair Kinghorn, who helped assist the opening score, were again heavily involved, combining to release try-scorer Jones on the left following a swift line-out move which began on the opposite flank.
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England’s disjointed performance was not helped by a series of box kicks from scrum-half Alex Mitchell which brought little joy and contributed to subduing an uninspired home crowd.
Scotland’s superiority should really have resulted in greater breathing space on the scoreboard.
But, with Russell having also missed his initial two conversion attempts, they led only 10-7 at half-time after surviving a major scare just before the whistle.
England centre Ollie Lawrence split the Scottish line with a superb break before offloading to full-back Smith, whose electric dart for the try-line was crucially halted by Van der Merwe.
Borthwick wasted little time in turning to his bench in a bid to shift momentum as he introduced experienced duo Jamie George and Elliot Daly inside five minutes of the restart.
A straightforward Marcus Smith penalty soon levelled proceedings, leaving the encounter on a knife edge as the two teams battled for supremacy going into a tense final quarter.
England led for the first time in the 67th minute when Marcus Smith slotted another penalty from in front of the posts.
With defences largely on top, Scotland struggled to reproduce the attacking enterprise shown earlier in the evening as a shot at history started to slip away.
England fly-half Fin Smith, who starred against France, nervelessly split the posts from halfway to give the home side a 16-10 advantage nine minutes from time.
Townsend’s team initially looked like they would not be able to hit back.
But England’s backline was left floundering by Scottish replacement Stafford McDowall, which culminated in Van der Merwe crossing on the left.
Russell, who recovered from a nasty head knock in his country’s round-two loss to Ireland to feature, was left with a match-winning moment but his effort sailed wide before England survived the frantic finish.
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Played himself out of the Lions starting Jersey too?