Russell miss allows England to escape with 16-15 win over Scotland
LONDON : Finn Russell missed a last-minute conversion that would have given Scotland a record fifth successive Calcutta Cup win on Saturday and instead England claimed a tense 16-15 Twickenham victory that keeps them in the hunt for the Six Nations title.
England had a six-point lead heading into the final minutes but Duhan van der Merwe scored against them yet again, only for Russell to miss his third conversion of the match and let the hosts off the hook.
Having edged France at the death two weeks ago it was another nail-biting finale for the Twickenham crowd who had endured a flat first-half performance as their side trailed 10-7 but were lifted by their second-half fightback.
"You have to give Scotland credit as they played a real smart game," said England coach Steve Borthwick. "They put pressure on you and as soon as they get a chance they move the ball wide quickly.
"But this young group stayed in the fight and they kept composure and they kept running hard. They eventually found a way to win."
The tale of the tape will leave Scotland wondering how they did not make their dominance pay. They scored three tries to one, carried the ball more than twice as far as England, made nine line breaks to two, beat 35 defenders to 10 and made 247 passes to 99.
"In the first half, our execution was very good - our contact work was outstanding," said coach Gregor Townsend.
"We created opportunities. We will look back and think we could have scored more. Performance-wise it probably surpasses what we've done down here in the last two or three years.
"England defended very well in their own 22 but with that amount of possession we're normally good at converting into points."
ENGLAND STAY IN HUNT FOR TITLE
Ireland, who beat Wales 27-18 earlier on Saturday, top the standings with 14 points. England have 10 and France, who play Italy on Sunday, and Scotland, have six.
England host Italy next before visiting Wales on the final day and though they will almost certainly need France to do them a favour by winning in Dublin to open the door, they remain in the hunt for a first title since 2020.
They made hard work of it on Saturday, however, managing only one early try and earning boos at times from the home fans after repeatedly kicking away possession.
Scotland were on the board after four minutes when Van der Merwe slipped through two tackles and slick passing sent scrumhalf Ben White over.
England hit back when Tommy Freeman blasted over, with Marcus Smith converting for a 7-5 lead.
Smith's sometimes brittle defence was then exposed again when he was brushed aside by Van der Merwe as the Scots poured down the left to leave centre Huw Jones a simple task to score.
Scotland continued to make all the running, taking full advantage of England’s strangely passive defence and Van Der Merwe’s defender-sucking, marauding runs but, with Russell missing both conversions, they led only 10-7 at halftime.
Scotland started the second half strongly too but, slowly but surely, England began to get a toe-hold and levelled it at 10-all after 55 minutes with a Marcus Smith penalty – their first score in 46 minutes.
They followed it with a spirited defensive set and, after finally finding some cohesion in attack, earned a penalty in front of the posts that Marcus Smith slotted for a 13-10 lead with 14 minutes to go.
Flyhalf Fin Smith extended that lead to six soon after with a penalty from almost halfway.
England looked to have done enough only for Stafford McDowall to blast through on a 40-metre swerving run that scattered England’s defenders and allowed Van der Merwe to score in the corner for a record-extending seventh Six Nations try against England.
With less than a minute on the clock Russell lined up the two-pointer from out wide but missed again and England then survived a nervous minute of defending to claim the win.
