All over at Murrayfield, and Scotland will be beating themselves up over the next few days. Some appalling finishing from the hosts, whilst the new England worked heroically in defence, right until the last minute. A gritty first win for Stuart Lancaster’s team.
What did you make of the game? How do Scotland stop the rot? Is Andy Robinson the right man going forward?
I think that all England fans can expect a year or two of doldrums, but there may just be hope at the end of the tunnel. I ruddy ‘ope so
Maybe this will shut the ‘Dowson for England’ brigade up. Not that anyone will credit Johnson for not listening to the media and not selecting him because he was never good enough. (as was also shown during the Maori v England game 2 years ago)
I’d still take him over Easter. One quiet game doen’t mean it was a bad selection. And credit Johnson for not giving him an opportunity, with the form he was showing in the Prem?! Yeah, right, also credit to him for sticking with the likes of Hape and Tindall.
England will improve – Scotland at home are no longer a walk over. Dowson not up to the job agreed but there were more worrying signs that not all is well
We get to the half-way line – having had little possession, we form a ruck, Youngs does a box kick! – we then defend for five minutes – eventually win a scrum and get back the our ten yard line with some hard yards from the forwards – Youngs does a box-kick! and we defend for another 8 minutes – madness
Defence much too narrow – out of hand kicking woeful – Farrell is fantastic at creative kicking – use him not the pointless punt to their full-back that we seem so fond of
Dowson was horrible,where was he?get Waldrom soon
Can the Scottish players and management be a little more gracious in defeat. Again we have the usual post match comments implying that the Scots were the better side in a game that they deserved to win but created their own downfall. Whilst that may be the case (although repeated ‘flattery to deceive’ would suggest they are just not good enough) I would hope teams could retain a bit more class after the game… win or lose
To be fair, they were the better team! However they didn’t win because they couldn’t time a pass. We would have been shredded by most other teams. However agree that Robinson was not gracious in defeat mainly because he is trying to save his own neck and job!
I’m going to defend Dowson as well…he didn’t grab the headlines and looked a little nervous to start with, but he’s a grafter and deserves much of the credit for frustrating Scotland in attack. He was at the bottom of a lot of rucks, made 12 tackles (Barritt made most with 13) and it was the sort of performance that meant you’d only notice what he was doing if he wasn’t doing it.
That said, I enjoyed Morgan’s carry from the base of the scrum and I’d give him a start next week. Dowson should have 15 caps by now, but unfortunately he’s the wrong side of 30 so let’s get Morgan involved.
Some very good performances. Personally Botha and Robshaw stood out for me. Botha was getting everywhere, and Robshaw captained the side well in what was a difficult game. We could criticise England for not having a lot of creativity, but playing against a Scottish team who seemed to be self destructing on the pitch was not the easiest game, for a lot of guys in their first full cap.
I think Morgan deserves a start, as in the first scrum he was involved in, he did more than Dowson did for the first 65 minutes. He has to start against Italy. We haven’d had a really dynamic number eight since Dallaglio retired, and Morgan is exactly what we need.
Overall, I was fairly encouraged by England’s performance. For a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears rookies, to go to Murrayfield and win is not easy. Their defence was excellent – despite what Rugby Nick says above, yes there were a couple of line breaks, but on the whole there was no way through for Scotland and they slowed down a lot of ball effectively.
The penalty count was also very pleasing for once. In NZ, they were clocking up double figures of penalties in one half, so the fact that Scotland had so much possession and territory and yet only 6 points is a big improvement and hopefully that will continue. Perhaps it’s a sign of the ‘new’ culture?
And along those lines, the commitment shown by every player was very pleasing, and I’m glad they were rewarded for it with a victory.
Not a vintage performance by any means, but the result was absolutely everything, and with players like Wood, Lawes and Tuilagi to return, hopefully it’s the start of a decent spell.
Definatly agree with the penalties point which everybody seems to be ignoring. It was one of Englands biggest downfall is New Zealand.
Delighted England won and will do wonders for team spirit – a hard won victory against the run of play. Scotland were woeful, how can a team that’s been together that long look so disjointed. That being said, I liked their No 8 and No 7 (despite the fluffed try scoring pass).
England fought well, but never really looked like scoring. We desperately need a No 13. Botha was incredibly industrious and had to have had the top tackle count. I thought our much discussed lack of a No 7 was evident when turnover ball went begging at the tackle time and again. I hate to belittle players but poor Dowson did look off the pace, but I hope he gets another go and the chance to state his case. A satisfying win against a poor side. Well done England.
Quite how Scotland didn’t win is beyond me check out these stats:
Scot Eng
Line breaks: 3 1
Passes from Rucks 97 34
Ball won in Open play 118 46
Ball won in Opp’s 22 33 8
Tackles made 62 142
Tackles missed 2 16
Passes made 238 72
Possessions kicked 25 27
Worrying thing from an England point of view are the missed tackles and the possessions kicked! How & Why when we had so little of the ball did we kick more possession away than Scotland?
Some good things to take away but still a lot of hard work to be done if we want to compete against the others.
Ben H – totally agree with you and the other thing is quick ball, we just didn’t manage it at all. We aren’t going to win many games without it and it might stop useless kicking as well. Fortunately the Scots kicking was even worse than ours!
Lies, damned lies and statistics!!
My impression of the game was nowhere near as one-sided as that.
“How & Why when we had so little of the ball did we kick more possession away than Scotland?” – I think these two facts are mutually perpetuating. I also thought that when England kept the ball in hand they looked quite handy, so hopefully they’ll do more of that next time.
Good point and loving how you worked Perpetuating in!