Scotland’s litany of failure at Twickenham will be into a fourth decade by the time they come back, but rarely in 28 years of fruitless visits to south-west London have they given a performance of more battling commitment than they did in going down narrowly and controversially in the spring sunshine on Sunday.
A contentious yellow card given by referee Romain Poite to the outstanding Scotland open-side John Barclay midway through the second half tipped the balance of a desperately tight match in England’s favour and allowed them the necessary gap to continue their quest for a RBS Six Nations grand slam in Dublin next week.
Tom Croft’s try just as the Scotland flanker’s ten minute spell in the sin-bin was ending gave England just enough space to hold off another furious late rally by Scotland, with Max Evans scoring a neat individual try that had the vast packed stands at English rugby’s HQ jitteringly nervous until a late Jonny Wilkinson penalty killed off the contest.
It was clearly Scotland’s best display of the championship but still leaves them needing to beat an ebullient Italy, fresh from their historic win over France, at Murrayfield next week to avoid a first whitewash in the championship since 2004.
The Scottish scrummage again came under constant pressure but the defence, specifically the work of Barclay, Richie Gray and Ross Ford, returned to its best and there was plenty of strong attacking play.
Scotland head coach Andy Robinson admitted pride in the team’s effort but huge disappointment in the result.
“We’re really disappointed. That was a huge effort put in by the players and I take my hat off to them in the way they’ve played and put their bodies on the line today,” he said.
“We had this performance in patches against France and Ireland, what’s important for us is that we keep improving and meet our tough challenge against Italy next week.”Yellow cardThe yellow card incident led to the coach having another intense after-match talk with the referee.
“To lose someone like John at that time was a big thing for us, and at nine-all a similar instance occurred when England interfered on our ball,” he said.
“I talked to the referee about it after that game and will be speaking to Paddy (O’Brien, the IRB referees’ chief) about it as well.”
England manager Martin Johnson said from an England point of view that a yellow card “might have been coming” due to Scotland’s work at the breakdown but admitted his side had been in a scrap.
“We couldn’t land the killer blow in the second half, we had three or four cracking chances to score but couldn’t go in, and it felt like a long game out there,” he said.’Good fight'”It was a good fight. The guys are pretty flat after that which is good when you’ve won four out of four.”
A wild fox racing around the Twickenham pitch lined with flag-bearing members of a battalion of the Mechanised Infantry caused some disruption to a respectful hearing of Flower Of Scotland but once the intruder had nipped out a corner gate the Scots started brightly, although the setpiece was shaky by turns.
Ford’s first three throws were not on the mark but strong running by Gray and Sean Lamont saw England penalised on the wide left and Chris Paterson was his usual reliable self to put his team ahead.
Scotland got referee Poite’s preference on the first scrum but were hammered at the second on halfway and from the resultant penalty Toby Flood missed wide to the left from 40 metres.
But England turned the territorial screw with the help of a casual Ruaridh Jackson clearance and on the next scrum Scotland were penalised for taking it down and Flood levelled the scores.
The Scots responded with one of their best phase attacks of the entire championship, with Max Evans, Barclay and Lamont all prominent and deep in their own 22 England went offside for Paterson to restore his side’s lead with a simple penalty as the first quarter was completed.
The visitors were trying to keep the ball live and captain Al Kellock’s risky off-load had his team under pressure, conceding another penalty for Flood to bring his side back to parity.
The Scottish defence, maligned in the last two matches, was outstanding as England tried to overwhelm them, Ford and Barclay combining for one turnover in the show of their own posts, Gray snaring Flood as he threatened to break and Evans intercepting as Nick Easter broke tackles in midfield.
However, the scrum was still a Scottish weak point, and when Low took down one straight in front of the posts, Flood put his side in the lead, although half an hour in was far longer than the Twickenham crowd had anticipated for their side taking control.
Scotland quickly worked themselves back with strong running from Simon Danielli, another Barclay turnover and a Lawson kick that had James Haskell backtracking and provided position for Jackson to kick a cool drop goal to level the scores again as time expired in the half.
England skipper Mike Tindall took an ankle knock late in the half and stayed inside at half-time, and his replacement Matt Banahan made an instant impact when he smashed through Kelly Brown’s tackle, leaving the Scots back-rower out cold.
Chris Ashton and then Flood nearly got away as Scotland reeled but tackles by Paterson in midfield and Ford on Tom Wood at the corner saved the day as Brown was stretchered off after prolonged treatment on the pitch.
England had more great chances but a fumble from Tom Palmer, then an ill-advised sliced kick from Ashton and a poor off-load from Banahan gave Scotland some respite.
But the Scots had their own chance when a neat back row move had Gray smashing into the 22 and when the ball came back Evans ignored two men on his outside and was caught at the line.
The Scots then took off Jackson and Lawson but replacement scrum-half Mike Blair was left scrambling after another demolished scrum. In desperate defence the ref decided Barclay was interfering illegally as he attempted to win ball on his feet, showed the yellow card and Flood put his side ahead again from the penalty.
Scotland’s next promising attack ended in bizarre circumstances as Evans’s dodging run created space but play was halted in full flow as the referee suffered a leg injury and assistant Jerome Garces took the whistle.
Undeterred, the depleted Scots set up a drop goal chance that replacement Dan Parks shanked low and wide, but the defence remained hugely impressive and when England did break away through Ashton and Foden, Paterson got across for a brilliant saving tackle on his opposite number.
Although Ansbro made another fine tackle to stop Foden, England kept coming and finally worked the space for replacement Croft to smash through Parks’ tackle at the corner and score the opening try, Jonny Wilkinson converting with his first action of the game.
Despite that blow, the visitors roused themselves to come back immediately and both Blair and Gray went close before Evans’s deft chip-and-catch over the defence brought a deserved try, Paterson landing the conversion to take the score to within three points again with five minutes left. Wilkinson missed a drop goal chance as England seized on a handling error by replacement Nick De Luca but forced a penalty with a rolling maul that the veteran fly-half kicked to seal victory.
Attendance 81,213