Scotland deliver invention and maturity against England to emerge as Six Nations contenders

There were no travelling fans to revel in the glory of a long-awaited triumph; there will be no home celebrations to be had on the Edinburgh streets. The exultation of a famous win over old rivals might have looked a little different, but Scotland will not mind – for the first time in 38 years, victory at Twickenham was theirs.

Has a five-point win ever felt this authoritative and comprehensive? Duhan van der Merwe’s try might have been the only scoreboard separator, but this was a thumping in every sense. 

Scotland were immense, hassling and harrying and forcing errors of discipline and of accuracy, controlling both territory and possession. Failing to find even a semblance of fluency on the rare occasions they did get the ball, or seemingly intent on kicking it away, England crumbled in the face of intense pressure, their home ransacked by invaders from the north for the first time since 1983.

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“To win in these conditions against a very good side with the record they have here is a fantastic achievement for this group of players,” Gregor Townsend said of his side’s performance.

“There was a lot of variety in how we played and that was working out where we were having success. It’s got to be up there with our best ever result in our history.”

At the heart of it all was their captain. Stinging after a below-par 2019 World Cup both personally and for the team, Stuart Hogg had requested the added responsibility captaincy brings, and this was his finest performance since taking the role.

The full-back was everywhere in the Twickenham gloom. There was Hogg, rising high to defuse a high bomb, setting his feet quickly to evade a would-be tackler and surging past another to escape danger. There he was again, stepping in at first receiver with Finn Russell in the sin-bin to guide his side through the ten minutes without their chief string-puller.

And there was Hogg once more, covering the open space in the backfield and releasing a howitzer of a kick, a spiralling, swerving 70-metre punt that cut sharply through the dank and dark February air, tumbling to the turf and skidding across the surface perfectly into the corner. That thumping right boot, in combination with Russell and Ali Price, provided the powerful beats to set tempo and define territory throughout.

“I felt we were calm and in control of the whole game,” Hogg reflected. “I thought we had a clinical edge in our attack and defensively we fronted up. Every time England were attacking we stood firm and had a lot of dominant collisions.”

Full-back captains are a relative rarity, partially due to the the inherent distance from the game the demands of the position require. Hogg, however, injected himself with regularity – only two in Scottish blue carried more than the full-back. Defence coach Steve Tandy and Townsend had crafted the perfect game plan, and Hogg ensured it was executed.

Hogg can draw from a strong and close group of senior players but it was telling how he also gathered regularly with Cameron Redpath on the 21-year-old’s debut. The inside centre was another standout, offering options as a carrier, distributor and kicker, as well as securing a crucial turnover penalty.

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“I thought it was an incredible debut,” Townsend beamed. “To come into a squad you’ve not trained with before and then integrate with our way of playing, you don’t expect someone on their debut to have such an accomplished start when you’re new into the team, especially against England at a place we’ve not won for so long.”

For England, there are major questions to answer. Their attack was one-note and uninventive; their forwards displayed little physical edge. Owen Farrell appeared particularly rusty after his winter of inactivity, and it took Ollie Lawrence 60 minutes to make his first, and only, carry.

Only one side appeared physically and mentally ready for the battle. Without a home crowd to lift them, England struggled for intensity. Eddie Jones had talked up the pressure on the Scottish side ahead of what he termed their “game of the year”, perhaps indirectly releasing pressure on his side, who failed to rise to the occasion. This was their worst Six Nations performance under the Australian.

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Jones took responsibility at full-time: “We couldn’t find a way to get in the game. On a day like that, the set piece is always going to be important – as are the contests in the air and the gain line. We couldn’t win any of those areas and seemed to be a yard off the pace. I have to blame myself – I didn’t prepare them well enough.”

England move on to a very different contest. Franco Smith’s callow Italians visit Twickenham next week bruised from a fifty-point defeat by France. England will make changes, but how many? A return to the George Ford (curiously unused until the final ten minutes against Scotland) and Owen Farrell axis seems likely for the sterner tests to come, but their inexperienced opponents may offer opportunity for others – debuts for exciting backs Harry Randall and Paolo Odogwu may beckon.

Yet this should be remembered as Scotland’s day, a long drought broken and a defining triumph to be celebrated deep into the (socially-distanced) night. In every facet, this was a performance of invention, maturity and superiority, a statement victory for a side going from strength to strength with four successive wins in this competition. Make no mistake – Scotland are Six Nations contenders.