England 16-15 Scotland: report & player ratings as late Russell miss puts Calcutta Cup back in English hands

Scotland were left heartbroken as Finn Russell's late conversion miss saw the Calcutta Cup slip from their grasp with England winning the match for the first time in five years with a 16-15 victory at Twickenham.

That wasn't the story of the match though as Gregor Townsend's men were by far the better team with ball in hand but a combination of wastefulness in the home 22 and too many penalties was what really cost them. It all contributed for a sickening evening in London.

Scotland took less than four minutes to open the scoring with a terrific try that saw them move it side to side before Duhan van der Merwe made the line break, got the pass away to Tom Jordan on the wing who burst up the pitch and found the supporting Ben White on his inside to complete the move. Russell couldn't add the extra two points though from a kicking position he really should have.

England responded though and were soon battering the Scotland line with the visitors initially withstanding the brute force before it went out to winger Tommy Freeman who appeared to be clearly held up on the line but referee Pierre Brousset gave the on field decision as try and the TMO seemingly were shown a different angle to the replays everyone else had. Marcus Smith added the conversion to give the hosts a 7-5 lead after ten minutes.

It was looking like the even contest we all expected it to be but on 19 minutes Scotland had the lead again with their second try as the ball went out the back and van der Merwe again made the initial break, found Huw Jones with the offload centre finished in the corner. Russell missed the conversion again but this was a much tougher angle than the first as Scotland wen't 10-7 ahead. Possession was pretty even throughout the next 10 minutes but Scotland looked far more dangerous with ball in hand and were up in the England 22 again but a promising move ended with a knock on by Tom Jordan out wide that gave the hosts a reprieve.

The positive for England was that they were dominating the scrum, winning either a free kick or penalty from the three in the match up to this point. Another promising break ended with a scrum to England and yet another infringement from Scotland saw the penalty awarded to the hosts.

With the first half clock in the red they had one more chance to retake the lead and looked for all the world that they would with an incredible break by Marcus Smith but van der Mere did brilliantly to get back and take him down before the ball eventually was thrown into touch for half time. Scotland's game plan had been obvious, get the ball to the back as early and as often as possible and they were causing England no end of problems with their running but the scrum was proving a real cause for concern.

Signs were more positive as Scotland won a free kick from the first scrum of the second half and then held their own in another shortly after which gave them a platform to get up the pitch. More hard running from the backs and some neat passing from Russell but a Zander Fagerson knock on five meters out brought the attack to an end and from the resulting scrum they conceded another penalty.

Those penalties were adding up on both sides but it was England who finally managed to take advantage of one as Marcu Smith kicked it over on 55 minutes and all of a sudden we had a tied game. Scotland responded with another visit to the England 22 which went by without a score once again.

Back-to-back penalties for England got them in a position to claim another easy three points under the post and Marcus Smith did that to put them 13-10 ahead after 66 minutes. As we entered the final stretch of the game the worry now was that all Scotland's good running and dangerous attacking would be for nothing and they would be punished for not being clinical when it really counted.

On the stroke of 70 minutes another penalty saw Finn Smith leather it between the posts from halfway to make it 16-10 to put them ahead of an unconverted try giving Scotland that extra bit of work to do to salvage the match. The game was getting away from the visitor but they'd have one last chance when they were gifted a penalty for a line out infringement by the hosts in a promising area.

For all their great attacking play this was the most basic move as replacement Stafford McDowall sliced the English defence open and the ball came to van der Merwe who scored in the corner but it was heartbreak at the last for Scotland as Russell pulled the conversion wide meaning it was 16-15 to England. The game wasn't done though but Scotland would have to attack from deep and a penalty midway in their half got them up the pitch but the final attack saw once looe ball allow Kyle Rowe to be held up and that was the end.