England regain Calcutta Cup after Scotland miss last-gasp kick

Men's Six Nations

England (7) 16

Tries: Freeman Con: M Smith Pens: M Smith 2, F Smith

Scotland (10) 15

Tries: White, Jones, Van der Merwe

England edged towards the business end of the Six Nations in contention for the title as Finn Russell missed a 79th-minute conversion and Scotland's Calcutta Cup winning streak ended at Allianz Stadium.

Tries from Ben White and Huw Jones gave the dominant visitors a three-point half-time lead, but England hung in the fight and got the better of the breakdown after the break.

A pair of penalties from Marcus Smith and a booming kick from halfway from Fin Smith put England 16-10 clear going into the final nine minutes.

Yet Scotland shot back with wing Duhan van der Merwe going over in the corner after replacement Stafford McDowall had cantered through the heart of England's defence.

But, as Allianz Stadium held its breath, Russell, who had missed two previous shots off the tee, pushed a potentially match-winning conversion inches wide of the left upright.

Ultimately Scotland were ambushed by the sort of steely rearguard action they used to unleash on their auld rivals, as England claimed the Calcutta Cup for the first time in five years.

England trail defending champions Ireland by four points in the Six Nations standings, but a dangerous France will travel to Dublin in the next round with a point to prove and their own title aspirations potentially on the line.

Steve Borthwick's side take on Italy and Wales, who finished fifth and sixth in last year's championship, in their final two games.

Scotland are facing another mid-table finish as, once again, expectation fades to frustration and time ticks down on a golden generation of talent.

Since taking charge midway through 2017, coach Gregor Townsend's best return from seven previous Six Nations campaigns is a pair of third-place finishes.

Scotland back-three cause havoc out wide

The excellent Van der Merwe, whose surging runs and six tries have defined Scotland's supremacy in the fixture in recent years, gave England an unwelcome reminder of his talents inside five minutes.

After Ollie Sleightholme had kicked away possession to Blair Kinghorn, the powerhouse wing scorched outside Ollie Lawrence, drawing the England cover. Quick hands then released Tom Jordan down the line and the Bristol-bound centre slung a superb inside pass to put White in.

White celebrated the opening try long and loud in front of a silenced north stand, but the home team found a swift response.

They went straight down the other end and a spell of pressure and repeated short-range thrusts ended with wing Tommy Freeman plunging over the line, with the officials confident of a grounding that looked uncertain on television replays.

It was, however, a rare foray into Scotland territory.

The visitors headed to the tunnel having entered the opposition 22m eight times, with England only managing to get into the danger zone twice.

The pilfering of back-row twins Tom and Ben Curry and England's scrum supremacy, combined with some Scottish inaccuracy, kept the scoreline from having a similarly lop-sided look.

Jones added a try before the break, giving Scotland a 10-7 lead, as Kinghorn and Van der Merwe combined once more, finding angles, offloads and open field out wide.

Having been penned back for the majority of the match, England sprung forward thrillingly on the final play of the half as Lawrence rampaged through midfield and fed Marcus Smith.

With Freeman free on his inside, Smith couldn't find a pass and was snared by a covering Van der Merwe. On the next phase, Lawrence's ambitious offload landed over the advertising hoardings rather than in Sleightholme's hands.

Van der Merwe made 88 metres from 15 carries in another superb attacking performance against England

Smiths kick England to another one-point win

England managed to get a tighter grip on both Van der Merwe and the match at the start of the second half, imposing themselves through heavy carries from Ellis Genge and replacement Chandler Cunningham-South.

Marcus Smith slotted a penalty to level things on 56 minutes and place the match on a knife-edge.

The breakdown, loosely whistled by French referee Pierre Brousset, was a fierce battle with Maro Itoje and Jamie Ritchie going toe to toe.

Gradually England managed to get the upper hand though and, after a high hit from Kyle Rowe on Ollie Chessum had deprived Scotland of field position, England crept ahead off the tee.

Fly-half Fin Smith took on the responsibility of a long-range penalty and his self-belief was justified by a superb strike.

England, however, looked jittery.

Harry Randall, on for Alex Mitchell at scrum-half, struggled to clear his lines from the base of a ruck.

But it appeared that Scotland were out of ideas and time, until McDowall hit a beautiful inside line and Van der Merwe outflanked the ragged cover defence.

Russell though, with British and Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell looking on, could not come up with the game-winning points from a tough angle.

Scotland attempted a final rally from deep off the kick-off, but their hopes were snuffed out as Rowe was held up in a tackle and ushered over the touchline by a mob of white shirts.

The contrast in emotions was immediate. Chessum embraced England team manager Richard Hill with a scream of delight as Van der Merwe tangled with some of the home side in the final squabble of a spicy encounter.

The two sides now also have very different views on the remainder of the tournament.

'Our physical intensity needed to go up'

England head coach Steve Borthwick: "Things needed to be tweaked [at half-time].

"Our physical intensity needed to go up and it did in the second half, our bench had a really good impact again. It's the 23-man effort.

"Whilst there were bits in that game that weren't pretty, it's edge of the seat finales.

"You saw a very happy Allianz Stadium at the end of the game."

On his team's style of play: "Is it the type of game we want to play? No. But there are two teams out there and Scotland are a very good team and we have to find a way to win.

"They created a game plan that created an arm wrestle and we were trying to find a way to break that fight and find a way to get out of that. It's tough to get out of that but ultimately they got out of it."

'We could have scored more tries'

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend: "We scored three tries and will look back and think we could have scored more. In a lot of ways it was a better performance than we've had down here when we've won.

"England defended very well. They are very good in their own 22. Credit goes to them. With that amount of possession we're normally good at converting into points. Today we didn't do that often enough.

"Finn was a big part of us getting three tries. He has kicked a lot of very important points for us in the past."

On question marks over the grounding of Tommy Freeman's try: "I didn't really look at it, I heard the (other) coaches say it wasn't grounded, but I was on to the next thing which was a kick-off.

"I'm going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions.

"I did feel that the decision that counted against us for the winning three points, where we cleared someone out of the ruck, I just don't know how that's a penalty."

Teams

England: M Smith; Freeman, Lawrence, Slade, Sleightholme; F Smith, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Stuart, Itoje (capt), Chessum, T Curry, Earl, Willis.

Replacements: George, Baxter, Heyes, Hill, Cunningham-South, B Curry, Randall, Daly.

Scotland: Kinghorn; Rowe, Jones, Jordan, Van der Merwe; Russell (co-capt), White; Schoeman, Cherry, Z Fagerson, Gray; Gilchrist, Ritchie, Darge (co-capt), Dempsey.

Replacements: Ashman, Bhatti, Hurd, Skinner, Brown, M Fagerson, Dobie, McDowall.

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)