Scotland 20-17 England

The 2022 Guinness Six Nations rolled into town with a spine-tingling, full throated anthem and a raucous atmosphere at kick-off showing us what was so missed last year.

Scotland were, for a change, the known quantity going into this oldest of rugby fixtures, and with the promised horrible weather easing off a little before kickoff there was hope it would not be a repeat of drudgery of 2020.

England were tactically pretty astute in the first half, at least in terms of how they kept pressure up on Scotland although they were perhaps playing a little too much rugby when it wasn’t on.

Zander Fageron was very prominent in defence but it was his brother who earned the first penalty of the game, giving Scotland a first incursion into English half. The lineout was squandered – due to Scotland’s generosity not to the conditions – and the story of the game dripped into a series of scrums.

These may have served to explain the new “brake foot” law variation in the scrums to watching supporters, or it may not. The principal outcome was Scotland coming off second best in three or so scrums before the penalty was awarded against them.

A number of England players were playing their first tests in front of crowds, or their first in the Six Nations, but they didn’t look like it. Scotland were well pinnned in their own half.

A brave long lineout worked well to clear up yet more English pressure, and a pinpoint clearance from Ali Price saved Scottish blushes, before the Lions scrum half disappeared up the tunnel for a HIA, after suffering a brushoff from Sam Simmonds at full tilt.

With London Irish player Ben White on for his debut, how would Finn cope without his partner in crime?

Marcus Smith opened the scoring with a penalty; probably just reward for their control of the game to that point. Nobody told Ben White the tale of this game though, with some deft passing in the midfield from skipper Stuart Hogg slipping Darcy Graham through a gap in the defensive line. The winger was wise enough to draw two defenders and give the substitute scrum-half an easy run in, to his obvious delight.

It was to prove a brief cameo as Price returned to the field and the normal pattern of the game resumed, with Smith marshalling the game well and the Scottish back three dealing with a variety of probing kicks and grubbers. England were the ones determined to keep the pace of the game high, and keep the ball in motion.

Despite that, their best chance came from that old favourite: a trundling maul as the rain started to come down, but referee Ben O Keefe adjudged it held up by the massive defensive trio of Russell, Price and Graham.

Ritchie was penalised for handling in the ruck to give Smith another simple pop at goal and narrow the margin to a point, which was probably the least they deserved. Despite the refereeing outcomes being pretty balanced in terms of both sides, Scotland had so little ball in useful territory it felt at times like they were clinging on, yet grimly rather than feebly so.

While the likes of Hogg and Russell were getting them out of jail (and fluffing the occasional touch finder) the attack for the White try was about the sum of Scotland’s play in the opening half, and yet there was a penalty kick for Russell to finish things off and send the hosts back into the bowels of Murrayfield in front.

Half-time: Scotland 10-6 England

The Scots came out looking like they wanted to play a little more like England had, with some nice kicks from Russell assessing the English cover defence, but a dumb penalty for Darcy Graham running into Grant Gilchrist put them right back under pressure again. Graham compounded the error conceding a penalty under the posts which Smith kicked to reduce the margin to a point once again.

With half an hour to play we saw the replacements in the front row enter the fray straight into a scrum; straight away a free kick into a penalty. How long could Scotland keep giving England chances to click in their own 22?

About 30 seconds as it turned out, with Marcus Smith gathering the ball from a rapidly collapsing maul and scampering past the Scottish defence for England’s first try and the lead. The wonder kid couldn’t convert it but Scotland were still searching for a way into the game despite having led for most of it.

Scotland put together the most phases that they had all game but spilled it and but all that left was Hogg having to do what was either an incredibly brave or incredibly foolish bit of defending, trying to keep the ball alive by kicking it inside almost gifting away a try as Max Malins also chased it down.

Scotland were, like their skipper, living dangerously.

Jamie Ritchie departed on the buggy around the hour mark and Sione Tuipulotu got his first taste of Six Nations rugby but it was straight into fighting a rearguard action, with Smith kicking another penalty as his last act of the game.

Russell put together two pinpoint kick passes, one to put Duhan into acres of space, before another to Graham that left Luke Cowan Dickie with no apparent option but to palm the ball forward into touch out of the winger’s grasp.

O’Keefe awarded a yellow card and a penalty try and suddenly the scores were level.

Pretty well disciplined to that point, suddenly England had to use Joe Marler for throwing in at the lineout, errors appeared where they hadn’t previously and Scotland sensed they were in with a sniff.

With a man advantage, the crowd woke up.

Scotland earned a scrum penalty just short of the line and Russell squeaked it over, back in the lead going into the final ten minutes.

It looked like Ben White, now on for good, had successfully milked a kickable penalty for an England player lying on the wrong side of the ruck, but the TMO intervened to highlight a neck roll by Hamish Watson on Tom Curry which handed the momentum right back to the visitors, who won another penalty and kicked for the corner, although they ended up some distance short of it.

The lineout was spilled with a minute or two to go, but the Scots opted to kick it back for territory over possession of a slippery ball which then changed hands a couple more times before England won a final scrum, in kickable territory, as the clock went red.

Things suddenly got very tense. This was Scotland, after all.

It was the most important series of scrums in WP Nel’s recent Scotland career, but for anyone other than the most grizzled prop-lover it was interminable as the minutes, and scrum resets, ticked on without an end in sight.

With the referee desperate not to have to make another big call, England spun it wide rather than keep it in the scrum and Darcy Graham was suddenly clamped over the ball like a limpet, stripping the ball back and allowing Hogg to clear it into the back of the stand.

Scotland retained the Calcutta Cup, and first back to back wins against England since 1984, but more importantly, they stay alive in the tournament in which they offered so much promise.

Referee: Ben O’Keefe (NZ)

SRBlog Player of the Match: Darcy Graham was probably the most influential on the park, being at the centre of most of the talking points, although not all his interventions were for the positive towards the end of the first half. Matt Fagerson had a hugely positive game though in a match where Scotland did so much more defending than they would have wanted.

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