Scotland beat England in Calcutta Cup thriller for the ages
Duhan van der Merwe ensured Steve Borthwick’s England reign was launched with an agonising defeat after the Scotland wing crossed twice in a Calcutta Cup classic at Twickenham.
Van der Merwe plundered his decisive second try in the 74th minute as Scotland came from behind to record a 29-23 victory in their Guinness Six Nations opener.
The marauding Lions wing had already brought Twickenham to its feet with a stunning first-half score that began in his own half and saw five would-be tacklers beaten by his speed, strength and footwork.
While a magnificent solo score, it exposed a failing in England’s defence that was a recurring theme in the afternoon’s main indicator of a team playing under a new regime for the first time.
But overall it was a promising start to the Borthwick era as they performed with the speed and purpose that was missing in the latter stages of Eddie Jones’ time in charge, before running out of steam in the closing stages.
Max Malins crossed twice and Ellis Genge touched down for England in a seven-try thriller that saw irrepressible Scotland rewarded for refusing to give up.
England were booed from the pitch after a limp defeat by South Africa in their last appearance, the climax to a dire 2022 that resulted in Jones being sacked, but this seven-try thriller was very different.
They had won only one of the last five Calcutta Cup matches and the early omens signposted that run continuing when Huw Jones touched down Sione Tuipulotu’s grubber in the 15th minute.
Earlier in the move, Jones had raced through a wide gap in the midfield defence as Scotland struck off their first attack of the game having been on the ropes for the opening exchanges.
Apart from the all-too-familiar penalty count, there had been much to admire about England’s start and in the 23rd minute they were over, pouncing on the 15th phase of a sustained assault in the 22 when Malins produced a fine finish of Marcus Smith’s crossfield kick.
The brittle home defence was exposed once again as Van der Merwe, taking a pass from Kyle Steyn, left a host of white shirts in his wake as he weaved a path to the whitewash.
It was a classy individual score, but England showed their own flair to engineer a second for Malins as patient build-up and smart handling created a simple run in on the right wing.
An Owen Farrell penalty gave the hosts a one-point interval lead and they were over for a third time through Genge in the 48th minute after a succession of dynamic carries by their pack.
Scotland’s visits to the home 22 were rare but they showed a ruthless streak when they arrived, with Ben White taking advantage of an absent ruck defence to plunder a sharp try.
Veteran prop Dan Cole came on for his first cap since the 2019 World Cup final and forced a penalty at the scrum in his first involvement of the match, giving England the platform to renew their attack.
Farrell landed his second penalty and Russell replied in kind as a nailbiting conclusion approached.
Scotland kept pressing and the breakthrough arrived with six minutes left as Van der Merwe showed his strength to bulldoze over in the left corner and keep the Calcutta Cup in Edinburgh.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments