'He's an inch or two away from making a brilliant decision' - Townsend defends Hogg after goal line fumble costs Scotland for the second week running

A second horror goal line moment from Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg gave England the crucial possession to break a 3-all deadlock in the Calcutta Cup fixture at Murrayfield.

A week after spilling the ball in the process of putting the ball down for a try in Dublin, Scotland’s fullback scrambled to cover a long kick from George Ford. Instead of letting the ball cross the try line before diving on it, Hogg went early and fumbled the ball into the path of Owen Farrell.

Farrell’s try was called back after the TMO ruled that Hogg had grounded the ball with his torso, but it still gave England a 5-metre scrum with just 10-minutes remaining. England’s pack bullied their way over moments later through Ellis Genge to score the only try of the match in treacherous conditions.

Hogg’s second blunder in as many weeks was met with despair from Scotland fans online.

Stuart Hogg easily the worst back in this years six nations. Two shockers have cost his team 2 big results

— Diarmaid O'Kane (@dokane8) February 8, 2020

Stuart Hogg needs to just stop

— Ross McCafferty (@RossMcCaff) February 8, 2020

Stuart Hogg's back-to-back screw-ups are so embarrassing, especially when you're the captain of the side. A déjà vu of catastrophes. #SCOvENG

— Farhan (@farhanatwork_) February 8, 2020

https://twitter.com/ross_campbell97/status/1226227510200979458

Stuart Hogg mistake costs Scotland the game again.

You can have that one for free.

— TheGhostsOfMerthyr (@ghostsofmerthyr) February 8, 2020

I think the #GuinnessSixNations highlight reel at the end of the year is just gonna be full of Stuart HOGG blunders ?

— Fred Sharkey (@FredSharkey) February 8, 2020

One thing you've got to give it to Furbank, no major fuck ups. Doesn't sound like praise, but as Hogg showed, that's what a fullback needs to do in those conditions. #SCOvENG

— Slutty McSmoochyface (@Kingstonbro) February 8, 2020

Kind of glad we didn’t win. Hogg would’ve dropped the Calcutta Cup #SCOvENG Two games, two shockers.

— Brian (@BrianDRobertson) February 8, 2020

Even as an Englishman, I feel sorry for Hogg – he's a quality player, but his two performances in the #GuinnessSixNations so far have been woeful. His confidence is shot. Scotland badly need a match against Italy to boost their belief. #SCOvENG

— Rick Harris (@LongWordMonthly) February 8, 2020

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend wasn’t putting too much weight on Hogg’s error in the post-match wrap.

“There were about 40 or 50 errors in the game,” head coach Townsend said.

“A lot of kicks that went straight out, a lot of line-out errors, a lot of handling errors. If that ball had bounced forward, it was a 22 drop-out to us, not a scrum-five to England.

“It’s very hard to judge in those conditions and he’s an inch or two away from making a brilliant decision.”

Scotland captain Stuart Hogg was understandably disappointed to suffer a second-consecutive narrow defeat following the opening loss to Ireland.

“We’re gutted,” Hogg said. “We worked incredibly hard during the week to make sure we got to where we wanted to be and unfortunately we just came up short, but credit to England, they managed to control the ball and play in the right areas.

“We had opportunities, we just didn’t make the most of it, but we’ve just got to get on with it, can’t change anything. Same as last week, I’m proud of the boys’ efforts but these things happen.

“We’ve done some good things in the last couple of games but at the end of the day, we’re here to win Test matches and we’ve not managed to do that yet.

“We’ll get back to the drawing board on Monday morning and make sure we’re ready for a couple of weeks’ time.”

Scotland head coach Townsend sought to take some positives from the performances of his side in their first two fixtures.

“It’s difficult because the players are putting a huge effort in and this is a game we always want to win for our nation,” Townsend told BBC Sport.

“But I said to the players last week that we played a team (Ireland) that had only lost once on their home ground in five years and we played a team today that was in the World Cup final and in both games we were in positions to win.

“So that shows the quality we have in our squad. Now we have to make sure when we get in those positions again, we do get the win and the rewards for our effort.”

Andy Farrell and Jonathan Sexton talk to the media after beating Wales: