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England Men

8 Feb 2020 | 4 min |

England defeat Scotland to win Calcutta Cup

England sealed a narrow victory over Scotland to claim the Calcutta Cup and earn a first 2020 Guinness Six Nations win.

England led 3-0 at the break through Owen Farrell's penalty and although Scotland levelled through Adam Hastings, a second-half try from Ellis Genge and five points from the boot of Farrell ultmately sealed victory.

Back row boost

Much of the talk ahead of the game had been about the balance of England's backrow, but the combination of Lewis Ludlam, Sam Underhill and Tom Curry helped give Eddie Jones' side the edge, particularly at the breakdown, and although the scoreboard only showed 3-0 at the break, two missed penalties from Farrell either side of a successful one limited their advantage.

Conditions at Murrayfield had a huge impact on the opening stages with a combination of wind and rain resulting in an attritional contest in Edinburgh.

But it was England who shaded things at the break with two key stats telling the story of the half, with England winning five turnovers to Scotland's none which helped stunt their opponents' momentum, while the hosts also had four knock-ons to England's none which again slowed their progress.

Tense and tight 

It turned out to be the lowest scoring first half in a Calcutta Cup match since 1966 but within five minutes of the restart Hastings levelled via a Scotland penalty.

Farrell dragged a penalty wide with 15 minutes to go in an increasingly tight and tense affair, while Stuart Hogg needed the TMO to confirm he had grounded over his own line to deny a Farrell try.

But from the resulting five metre scrum, England were over via Genge, crashing over off the back of a ruck for his second  international try.

Farrell stretched the lead to 13-3 with a penalty before Hasting cut that deficit to seven points but England held out to bounce back from last weekend's defeat to France.

Teams

Scotland: 15. Stuart Hogg (capt), 14. Sean Maitland, 13. Huw Jones, 12. Sam Johnson, 11. Blair Kinghorn, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. Ali Price; 1. Rory Sutherland, 2. Fraser Brown, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Hamish Watson, 8. Magnus Bradbury.

Replacements: 16. Stuart McInally, 17. Allan Dell, 18. Simon Berghan, 19. Ben Toolis, 20. Nick Haining, 21. George Horne, 22. Rory Hutchinson, 23. Chris Harris.

England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Jonny May, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Willi Heinz; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Kruis, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Tom Curry.

Finishers: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Courtney Lawes, 21 Ben Earl, 22 Ben Youngs, 23 Ollie Devoto.