Key events
82 mins. On an advantage for a deliberate knock on Scotland huff and puff a bit before the attack fizzles out. Russell boots it to touch and they’ll have one last attack to win it.
80 mins. Scotland have the ball from the restart but they are miles away for the England tryline.
TRY! England 16 – 15 Scotland (Duhan van der Merwe)
79 mins. Itoje is penalised again at the next lineout which means Scotland will have another attack. McDowall springs loose in midfield on a fabulous angle before the ball moves left to van der Merwe who scores in the corner.
The conversion is needed, but it’s a horribly difficult one and it misses to the left by Russell.
76 mins. The ball is worked left to Ashman who for some reason thinks a one-handed reverse offload is the way to go. It wasn’t as it flew high, forward and into touch. Truly awful stuff.
To add insult, the TMO has spotted that a few seconds prior the replacement hooker had blocked Lawrence in defence giving a clearing penalty to England.
75 mins. The blue attack is on the 22 and being held there by an energetic England defence.
73 mins. The latest platform for Scotland, and lineout in the England 22 , is thwarted by Itoje getting amongst it at the top of the throw. It’s frustrating but the visitors will come again via the clearing kick from Randall.
71 mins. Scotland have the ball back and are busy again without looking like breaking an England defence that has fanned out across the field. AFter two phases it runs out of steam and shape, the ball bouncing off Ashman’s knee. However, Daly does them a favour by booting the ball out on the full.
PENALTY! England 16 – 10 Scotland (Fin Smith)
69 mins. The visitors are up to twelve penalties, the latest is for Fagerson dropping Ben Curry after lifting him in a clearout. It’s 50m out, but Itoje chucks the ball to Smith who slots a cracker.
67 mins. Scotland are behind and have not really looked like scoring so far in this half beyond half an offload chance from Russell and England are growing into the game as the minutes ebb away.
PENALTY! England 13 – 10 Scotland (Marcus Smith)
66 mins. Kyle Rowe is penalised for going in high on Chessum, it’s a penalty only as low level of danger. This gives England a lineout platform in the 22 which moves to the backs for Daly who can’t repeat his tryscoring run vs France. There were multiple advantages being played as Scotland repeatedly infringed, and so Itoje decides it’s time to take the points.
63 mins. The home side have shown more in attack this half – which wasn’t difficult after the first half no-show – but each time they look to be gaining some momentum they either knock-on or Scotland nick it as Jamie Ritchie has just done.
61 mins. Scotland haven’t scored since the 18th minute. Which is not good enough as we enter the final quarter all-square.
60 mins. Russell is this close to offloading to van der Merwe on the right with the line begging but he can’t quire release it. The usual Scotland pattern of nice looking passes settles in, but again England contain it before Itoje robs it at the ruck.
58 mins. Scotland mix the attack up a bit with Rowe popping up in midfield to drill and angled grubber kick into the corner. It’s covered by Daly, but all Mitchell can do is kick it to touch on the 22 to give the visitors another attack.
PENALTY! England 10 – 10 Scotland (Marcus Smith)
55 mins. A positive opening of the half is rewarded with Smith levelling the scores.
History has demonstrated there are many ways to win a rugby match and England could execute a classic, stats and data defying win here if this continues.
52 mins. Fin Smith wins a turnover via a huge hit on Jordan and follows that up with a probing cross kick that tests van ver Merwe who is rewarded for taking it with a huge double hit by England’s kick-chase. Scotland do enough to secure the ball and get it away.
49 mins. A rare carried attack by England has Cunningham-South taking his first run with the ball. Genge takes a turn next but Ritchie spots and takes a chance to win a turnover at the next ruck.
Chandler Cunningham-South is on for the injured Tom Curry.
47 mins. The blue attack returns to the England 22 via more left side possession and runs. Russell is busy in behind and playing his team-mates in with a variety of passes, the latest of which finds Zander Fagerson who knocks on in contact.
The longer this goes on, the more England will believe this is there for the winning, a la the France game. Scotland must score some more points to reflect their dominance.
44 mins. England have another good attack to match the one close to half time with the ball taken late to the line for Lawrence to have a run into the Scottish half. It gathers momentum through the phases but the ball is spilled forward in a tackle.
Jamie George is on for Cowan-Dickie.
Elliot Daly replaces Sleightholme.
42 mins. Normal service resumed with Scotland back on the ball and putting good shape on the attack. It’s contained to the middle third of the pitch by the England defence and eventually Ben Curry (on for Tom Willis) wins a turnover out wide.
Second Half!
England receive the restart to get us back underway.
“I’ve no idea how the second half will go,” says Simon McMahon, “but at the same time I’m almost certain Scotland will lose. Almost.”
If you believe in the hot hand theory then this game is a foregone conclusion Scotland win given they had pretty much all of that half.
But as the smallprint tells you; past performance is often not indicative of future results and England will be quietly delighted to only be three behind with an inspiring half-time PowerPoint and PowerBI session to come from Steve Borthwick.
Half Time! England 7 – 10 Scotland
41 mins. England decide to have a final attack from the lineout and it looks a good option as Marcus Smith races 40 metres, stepping left and right up to the Scottish 5m line. He’s caught by the blue scramble before Lawrence chucks an offload over Freeman’s head and into touch to end the half.
39 mins. Another massive run from van der Merwe on the left makes fifteen metres. Russell then puts width on the attack the other way to stretch England which works up to a point, but Dave Cherry lurking on the wing gets isolated and that allow Curry to clamp on and win a turnover.
The ball is cleared and on the next Scotland visit the ball won’t come out of the maul, winning a scrum for England, which they win a penalty from.
36 mins. You have to take what you can from a game, and England are currently in the position of whooping and clapping Scotland knocking on in a ruck.
It’s pathetic in one way, but actually not without some merit because the visitors remain only three points ahead despite dominating everywhere. And this is something to celebrate for England.
33 mins. England win a scrum in their 22 which Willis carries out hard followed by a Mitchell clearing kick. There’s some traded possession from the boots of each side, but in the end it’s advantage Scotland as Itoje is penalised for playing Ritchie in the air at the lineout.
30 mins. It remains pretty much all Scotland, all the time. The latest 22 visit via a huge van der Merwe run settles into some carries before Russell tries to find Jordan out left with a fizzing pass, but it’s forward.
27 mins. Russell calls for the ball and spots some space for a 50:22 attempt. It’s sailing in the right direction but rolls into touch just short of the 22 which gives England the lineout. However the home side can’t secure clean possession but they eventually manage to get it clear.
There’s is the beginnings of a discontented murmur creeping around Twickenham
23 mins. More Scottish possession in English territory. This ends with a knock-on after a grubber from White can’t be gathered on the chase.
England appear to have ceased committing people to defensive rucks, meaning Scotland are having quick ball which I’m not sure is the best idea given what was outlined in the previous post.
20 mins. It is alarming for England who easily first phase gets outside of their defensive system. It will be long evening for them if Scotland can get to the line at will out wide.
TRY! England 7 – 10 Scotland (Huw Jones)
19 mins. A maul for Scotland breaks out of the kicking patterns and Itoje is penalised for creeping around it. From the lineout the ball is fired to Russell on first phase to put it through all hands to Duhan as quickly as possible. Jones is in support and is in the left corner.
Russell misses another conversion, but they are all from way out west so far, to be fair.
17 mins. Two drives, box kick. Repeat.
Tum-te-tum.
15 mins. The game settles a bit after the scoring start as possession is traded in the middle third. Scotland are having slightly more of it, but there’s not a huge amount being done with it from either team.
12 mins. Scotland are in the home 22, with the ball eventually moving to Kinghorn on the right who tries a pointless offload to Rowe who wasn’t ready for it and didn’t have any room to work in. It bounces off his noggin into touch.
10 mins. Both teams are already trading penalties at the breakdown as their combative backrows spoil possession and win turnovers. The latest is Ritchie setting up a lineout platform in the England half.
TRY! England 7 – 5 Scotland (Tommy Freeman)
7 mins. England hit back into the 22 via lineout. There are lots of phases after the initial drive, but they are one-out runners that are being contained by the Scottish line defence. Scotland are offside and on the advantage Freeman calls for the ball close to the ruck to force over under the attention of a couple of tacklers.
Marcus Smith adds two.
TRY! England 0 – 5 Scotland (Ben White)
4 mins. Russell stands up Lawrence in midfield around halfway and finds van der Merwe who rampages forward and offloads to Jordan on the left. The centre flies up the touchline and fires a great pass back inside to White who runs in unopposed.
Russell can’t convert it, but a fantastic start nonetheless.
2 mins. England have the first meaningful attack after van der Merwe can’t gather a Ben White box kick. The ball pops to Itoje who get his side on the attack, moving left to Slade who pins the Scots back with an angled kick to touch.
Kick Off!
Fin Smith boots the game to life, sending the ball deep into Scottish territory
Here come the teams, filing past the fabled Calcutta Cup into a decent London evening. Some anthems first, then some rugby.
Have a read while you wait…
Drop me an “>email with your thoughts on the match. Can Scotland do the five wins in a row?
Teams
One change made by Steve Borthwick to the starting XV that overcame France as Ollie Chessum replaces George Martin at lock. Martin was moved to the bench, but a late injury means he is replaced by Bath’s Ted Hill.
For Scotland, Finn Russell is passed fit to start after his clash of heads with D’Arcy Graham vs Ireland. The Edinburgh winger is not as lucky however and is replaced by Kyle Rowe. In the forwards, Pierre Schoeman returns at loosehead, with Rory Sutherland sent to the bench. Jamie Ritchie, who captained his side to victory at Twickenham in 2023, is back in the starting lineup, taking the place of Matt Fagerson who is among the subs.
England: Marcus Smith; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje (capt), Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Jack Willis.
Replacements: Jamie George, Finn Baxter, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Harry Randall, Elliot Daly.
Scotland: Blair Kinghorn; Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe; Finn Russell (co-capt), Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson; Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge (co-capt), Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Sam Skinner, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall.
Preamble
At some point in our lives and careers, we’ve all had a really bad day at work. For example, I once crashed an entire mortgage system because the overnight patch I’d signed off on tried to put a three digit code in a two digit field. It was the late 1990s, and the system was so old it was likely designed by Alan Turing – none of these excuses helped. But a few days later, they gave me something simple to do and I relaxed with the ease of this task and built some confidence back up.
Scotland arrive in south west London after Ireland put a terrifying rampant ghoul of a ghost in their machine two weeks ago and Gregor Townsend’s men will take some comfort that they have an easier job today. Beating England is something Scotland has become highly accustomed to, and they attempt to do it today for an historic fifth time on the trot.
England players and fans will not take kindly to this narrative, factual though it is, as they look to build on a dramatic, fortifying win over France in the last round; the forwards, led by a rejuvenated Tom Curry, coming into their own in the second half. Ireland showed that if you knock Scotland around a bit early on then the pressure splinters their plans, this could be a way for the home side to stop the recent losing run.
A tough one to call. Form and location marginally favours England, but that’s what the view prior to each of the previous two wins for Scotland at Twickenham. We’ll soon find out.
Kick off is 16:45 (GMT).