Scotland the brave stun England – 6 Nations

NatWest 6 Nations

Scotland 25-13 England 

Huw Jones scored two tries and Scotland reignited their 6 Nations challenge with a thrilling 25-13 win over England at Murrayfield. The Scots had waited ten years for a win in the Calcutta Cup and 14 for a home try in this fixture, but they had three by half-time against a shell-shocked England – beaten for only the second time under Eddie Jones.

Credit must go to the English for the way they fought back from 22-6 down to make it a very tense second half, scoring early through Owen Farrell, but in the end they had left themselves too much to do and saw their Grand Slam and Triple Crown hopes ended.

Sean Maitland followed up his try against France in Round Two, with another in the opening 40 minutes, while Finn Russell produced his best performance of the Championship so far to reward Gregor Townsend for his decision to stick with the fly-half.

Scotland had started with an early Greig Laidlaw penalty to settle the nerves after going down by two scores early in both of their previous games.

While England fought back with a Farrell three-pointer, it was the Scots who crossed for the first try, Jones becoming the first Scot to score a try in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield since Simon Danielli all the way back in 2004.

It came after a strong maul which England failed to deal with. Having earned penalty advantage, the Scots then went to their backs and a little grubber from Russell caused chaos in the English 22 and Jones collected to race over for his ninth try in 14 Tests.

Laidlaw converted but England came straight back to the other end of the pitch and won a penalty which Farrell converted to cut the deficit to four points.

Coming into the game there had been lots of talk over the form of Russell, and just after the half-hour, it was his brilliant pass that ended up setting up the second Scottish try.

In his own 22 he threw a wide, looping pass that looked like it would be intercepted. However, instead of England picking it off, Jones was able to take, race from one 22 to the other and after the ball was quickly recycled, Russell produced another miss-pass to put Maitland over in the corner. Laidlaw could not convert from the touchline but Scotland were worthy of their 15-6 lead.

And it got even better just before half-time when Jones again burst through a gap in the heart of the English defence, shaking off the tackle of Nathan Hughes. He still had a huge amount to do though, but despite Mike Brown and Anthony Watson getting back to cover, he had the strength to force his way over for a second try of the afternoon. Laidlaw’s conversion made it 22-6 at the break with Scotland in dreamland.

If England were going to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive, they needed a quick start to the second half, and they got one when Farrell ran a wide line that left Grant Gilchrist clutching at thin air, his conversion cut the deficit to nine.

There followed a period of missed chances for both sides, Danny Care and Farrell called back when they thought they had tries, while Peter Horne could not find Hamish Watson outside him for what could have been a fourth Scottish try.

England seemed to turn the tide with Sam Underhill making an impact off the bench. But with 15 minutes to go he was guilty of a no arms tackle on Jamie Bhatti and was sin-binned as a result. From the resulting penalty Russell made it 25-13.

The visitors kept coming but the Scottish defence held, and when the returning WP Nel earned a scrum penalty seven minutes from time allowing Scotland to clear, the game was up.

Still England fought, but they could not find a way through, and failed to even pick up a losing bonus point.

Scotland meanwhile, have well and truly put their opening day loss to Wales behind them, and now travel to Dublin with their tails up and a title challenge back on track.