Scotland vs England - minute-by-minute

[Puja]

Let the pain begin. To give you my preconceptions - I thought Slade and Lawrence were both dire, Cole was impressive in the loose, Itoje was impressive in everything, Freeman got none of the ball, Spencer needs to be shot, Ford and Care were meh without being anywhere near as bad as the board/pundits would have it. I also have already set up the counter for Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: because I expect to be using it a lot.

Let's see how many of those hold up to scrutiny, shall we?

Minute 1: We go for a short kick-off down the middle and it's just too long from Ford so Kinghorn catches under very little pressure. Our kick chase is poor as well - Slade has launched himself superman style at a ball he's never reaching, meaning he's not in a position to tackle, and George and Earl react far too late, meaning Kinghorn is almost through before Earl makes a desperate tackle. Given that this kickoff is a pre-called first play, that is woeful for any aspect of it to be off the mark, especially that many.

Kinghorn offloads to Tuipulotu who is nearly through but for a desperate tackle by Cole and we have done a "clever" kickoff that has allowed Scotland to run nearly back to the halfway line before the TV have even put up a clock for me to see how many seconds have gone.

We nearly make it a perfect opening minute - we commit hard to the blitz to pressure Russell, but he does get it away and Scotland look to be free down the wing, but Underhill and Chessum are sweeping behind the blitz well and pressure Kinghorn into passing into touch.

The lineout is a lovely throw to the back and off the top for ideal attacking ball, which is put into midfield for Ford to... pass it a full 8m backwards to Slade who is standing deep for some unknown reason? It means no attackers are remotely drawn in and, while Earl makes a good carry to bring us back up to where the lineout came from, we've not really posed much of a threat.

It's quick ball, which we then pass deep for Ford to put up a high ball on the wing. We keep making ground and then giving it back with deep passes! Freeman does just about win the kick and the bounces nicely for Underhill to have a run, but he's close to the touchline and has to throw a loose offload from the floor, which leaves Freeman to be driven into touch.

Minute 2: Scotland throw the lineout to the front and Itoje does a great job of breaking the maul by immediately sacking the jumper. Scotland break away, but we haul them down and give slow ruck ball, and the next phase Itoje charges up and forces a knock-on. Cole gathers the loose ball and goes on his longest carry in his last 20 caps.

It is quick ball again and Genge takes to the line before pulling back to Ford, who can then spin it into midfield for Lawrence and Slade to do a good impression of a functional centre partnership. Unfortunately our momentum is lost next phase when Freeman takes the ball at first receiver, standing still, and then reckons he can stand up Jones and drive through Kinghorn in a tight space. Turns out neither of these were true and he's lucky to get his knees to floor.

Minute 3: We put in some very nice handling to send Chessum up on a crash ball and this is a very good attack which unfortunately ends next phase. Care gets a call from the blind and changes direction, but Fagerson is getting up just in his way and throws him off. Care doesn't make enough of a meal of it to get the penalty and then throws a pass somwhere between Genge on the crash and Slade to feed the overlap and Slade knocks it on attempting the miracle flip-pass of the bobbling ball.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x1

Minute 4: We spend the majority of last minute and all of this minute failing to scrum, with a little cheer at the end as the ref gives England a free-kick for Scotland not holding their weight.

Minute 5: England opt for a scrum again and, having praised Earl for his 8-work last week, this is sloppier as he unbinds early and then goes hunting down various channels to work out where the ball has gone, like a dad trying to find the sports section pullout in the Sunday paper bundle. If Scotland had been paying attention or if White had been following the ball rather than dropping back to defend, that was an easy turnover.

A full 3 seconds after unbinding, Earl locates the ball and breaks open. Lawrence is running a hard line off his shoulder and, between the two of them, they have tied in the entire Scots back row and Finn Russell. Earl pulls it back to Care on the loop who has Slade running a hard line that drags in Tuipulotu. The ball is pulled back to Ford who carries the ball to the line to suck in Jones - DVDM stays wide to mark Furbank and Freeman, so Ford pops to Daly who has acres to run through. VDM and Steyn have to combine to stop Daly, who can then make a simple offload to Furbank to walk over the line and earn me a cool £5 for betting on him to score the first try.

[Puja]

Minute 6: The minute is spent with replays. That was a gorgeous pre-planned move and one which was played to perfection. Really good training paddock work which resulted in a deserved 7 points. However, it was very, very clearly pre-called and pre-rehearsed, with the only player making any kind of a decision being Ford watching who DVDM chooses to mark and passing to the other one.

Minute 7: Ford kicks the easy conversion and we're finishing the minute-by-minute there at the end of the game, yeah, sound good?

Unfortunately, Scotland do kick off again. It's long to Care who makes a decent enough kick to take us up to our own 10m line. Fagerson is dragged off for a gumshield-related HIA.

Minute 8: Scotland throw to the back and loock to run Dempsey at Ford, but this week Underhill and Earl are on their game and chop him down. Ford then charges up to tackle the 9 at the next breakdown and the ball goes loose to end up in an England scrum.

Minute 9: Millar-Mills actually has a go at attacking Genge at the scrum. Genge basically goes, "Aww, that's sweet" and then folds him in half for an England penalty. Very annoying that the ref didn't play advantage there, as Earl had just broken from the base and it looked to be good attacking ball, but we'll take the cheap penalty.

Replay shows that Genge was actually cheating like an absolute bastard at that scrum, right in front of the referee. We'll definitely take the penalty, given that was nearly the opposite way. Stupid from Genge, cause there was no threat to him and a better ref would've caught that.

Minute 10: Nigel Owens on comms just makes the same point I just did on Genge's legality. As he does, we throw the lineout to the middle and we set up a competent if uninspiring maul that gets us a couple of metres and a decent attacking base. Care plays away to Slade at 10 and we run our usual play of one-short-runner-and-a-pull-back-option, which I think may be the only attacking play that Wigglesworth knows. Slade attempts to do his pull-back without looking however and ends up passing into Earl's elbow rather than passing to Ford.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x1, Slade x1

[Puja]

Minute 11: The scrum comes together early and it looks like Scotland's fault, but the referee is standing right next to Genge and blows a free-kick for him pulling Millar-Mills in to try and con a turnover for early engage. Given that he's standing right there, I'm gonna believe him and chalk this one up to Genge being an idiot and trying too much right under the referee's nose. Should be a penalty rather than a free-kick though? As it's actively cheating, rather than an early engage? Never mind.

Scotland kick it long and Freeman fields inside our 22. He gives it to Furbank to kick long, who disappointingly fails to make touch. Russell feeds Kinghorn who looks to arc around Dan Cole on the kickchase, only to be surprised by Cole not being remotely beaten by the sidestep and following his arc to bring him down with with a very solid tackle. Underhill is first over the ball and is unlucky not to get the turnover that bit of defence deserved.

Scotland do have the ball, but Itoje feints like he's about to leap on White, which makes him hurry his pass into going to nobody. The ball is bobbling and loose (and if I were Scots, I'd be screaming that Slade shoves Darge over when he looks like he might get to the ball). England regather and pass the ball out. Shockingly enough, we've set up with a forward carrier with one hard option on his shoulder and a pull-back option behind.

Minute 12: Chessum pulls back to Furbank who throws a wide and wild pass that Ford does well to stretch above his head and bring under control. Ford then throws a short pass to Lawrence that assumes he's running hard onto the ball, which unfortunately Lawrence had aborted as his run was timed around Ford not having to reach for the pass and readjust. As it is, it's a very difficult catch and Lawrence drops it.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x1, Slade x1, Ford x1

We get a decently set-up scrum, but England give away a cheap free-kick by driving before the ball was put in. It's a shame, and it does look a bit like White dummies the feed, but that's not a mistake that we should be making. That's two scrums in a row with Millar-Mills against our starting pack and two where we've given away pointless offences.

Minute 13: Finn Russell goes for a garryowen, but it's no !!!SPIRAL BOMB!!! and Freeman takes fairly easily. We go blind and Genge makes a good carry with quick ball, but we decide we're slowing it right down and going for the box-kick. Gosh, I hope we don't get stuck in this pattern later at crucial points in the game.

Care box-kicks and it's not great - only travelling about 15m forwards - but it is at least contestible and Freeman does enough to get it back on our side. Roots carries effectively and we have quick ball, which once again is passed back 8m to Slade standing still, with the rest of the backline 8-10m back behind *him*. This is great attacking ball and no-one appears to feel like attacking with it. Slade kicks the ball away, which is probably the only thing he could do with it, but it's not even as though it's pre-called because the winger's a full 10m behind the ball as it's kicked and is always on the back foot in the chase.

Scotland stop the ball from going dead and pass back to Russell who kicks it long for Ford to take uncontested. He signals another high ball and up she goes again. Once more Freeman does enough to knock it back to our side and the ball lands nicely for Itoje to make a strong carry up.

Minute 14: Scotland slow the ball down though and we resuscitate it with Genge carrying, a forward runner on his shoulder and the pull-back option behind, just for a change. Surely we must have some other shape available to us? It's not the worst setup, but it's pretty basic. Trowbridge IIIs use that manoeuvre and I'd like to hope that England have better training than we do.

Genge does pull it back and Ford chooses a wrong option on a 4-on-3, selecting the short pass for the Lawrence crash, rather than the miss-pass to Furbank that could've seen a 2-on-1. Still, Lawrence makes a solid carry, and then Scotland give away an incredibly obvious penalty for hands on the floor at the next ruck. We try to play with the advantage, but don't make much of a dent and Ford tries a chip and chase which gives the ball back. We come back for the shot at goal.

Minute 15: Ford takes his time and slots the 3 points. 0-10 to the good guys.


That'll do me for the evening. I suspect short, sharp bursts is how I'll make it through this with my sanity intact.

Puja

[Danno]

Doing God's work Puja.

Old Testament, but still.

[Which Tyler]

I'll leave it a little before reading these - but thank you for putting the effort in Puja.


I'm nowhere near as negative as most people here seem to be.
The ball didn't stick far too many times (and often unforced). Lawrence showed the folly of putting players straight from injury and into the starting XV (as did Underhill a few weeks ago). Ford is nursing an injury and off-form, but that's nothing new.

Beyond that, there were more positives from that match than pretty much any Borthwick match barring Argentina at the RWC.
We actually tried to attack (no idea why we then stopped trying) and it looked promising, but new to everyone - which is it was.
We're blitzing in defence, because that's what we're doing now, and it looked promising, but new to everyone - which it nearly was.
We are introducing new and newish players into the squad; even if we're not introducing 20 of them all at once (which would be even more suicidal).
We've been told by South Africa - and can check for ourselves, that this defensive system takes 15-16 matches to bed in. I'm not willing to throw it out after 3. When a blitz defence goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong - but then, we've known that since it first came to Union 16 years ago.
Oh, and CCS, IFW and Fin Smith all got decent minutes, and came on when the match was still in the balance (on the score board, at least).

The systems are showing promise, and look very new. The individuals are showing that they're not used to systems that take time and practice to get used to.

I never wanted Borthwick. But we reached par at the RWC, which meant that he gets until the end of 2025 to prove me wrong - costs mean that he probably gets until 2027 regardless .
Scotland are a good side, we were never expected to win this, and the margin on the scoreboard looks pretty close to what most of us were predicting beforehand.
We're not good. I didn't expect us to be. We showed more than I expected, even if it mostly didn't come off, largely because it's all new.

[Banquo]

I'll leave it a little before reading these - but thank you for putting the effort in Puja.


I'm nowhere near as negative as most people here seem to be.
The ball didn't stick far too many times (and often unforced). Lawrence showed the folly of putting players straight from injury and into the starting XV (as did Underhill a few weeks ago). Ford is nursing an injury and off-form, but that's nothing new.

Beyond that, there were more positives from that match than pretty much any Borthwick match barring Argentina at the RWC.
We actually tried to attack (no idea why we then stopped trying) and it looked promising, but new to everyone - which is it was.
We're blitzing in defence, because that's what we're doing now, and it looked promising, but new to everyone - which it nearly was.
We are introducing new and newish players into the squad; even if we're not introducing 20 of them all at once (which would be even more suicidal).
We've been told by South Africa - and can check for ourselves, that this defensive system takes 15-16 matches to bed in. I'm not willing to throw it out after 3. When a blitz defence goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong - but then, we've known that since it first came to Union 16 years ago.
Oh, and CCS, IFW and Fin Smith all got decent minutes, and came on when the match was still in the balance (on the score board, at least).

The systems are showing promise, and look very new. The individuals are showing that they're not used to systems that take time and practice to get used to.

I never wanted Borthwick. But we reached par at the RWC, which meant that he gets until the end of 2025 to prove me wrong - costs mean that he probably gets until 2027 regardless .
Scotland are a good side, we were never expected to win this, and the margin on the scoreboard looks pretty close to what most of us were predicting beforehand.
We're not good. I didn't expect us to be. We showed more than I expected, even if it mostly didn't come off, largely because it's all new.

Most of the negativity seems to come from the last 20 minutes; post all the mistakes you highlight, we needed 3 scores. Showed zero urgency, in fact the opposite, wasted time, opportunities and just showed zero intelligence, Spencer being the prime culprit and IFW being the opposite mindset. IMO some of the 'systems' look like being over-thought/clever 'because we are great analysts'. I accept this takes time- but bleating on about being a young side (bs) and the ridiculous 'our 10/12/13 have never played together comment' really doesn't sit well.

[Which Tyler]

Most of the negativity seems to come from the last 20 minutes; post all the mistakes you highlight, we needed 3 scores. Showed zero urgency, in fact the opposite, wasted time, opportunities and just showed zero intelligence, Spencer being the prime culprit and IFW being the opposite mindset. IMO some of the 'systems' look like being over-thought/clever 'because we are great analysts'. I accept this takes time- but bleating on about being a young side (bs) and the ridiculous 'our 10/12/13 have never played together comment' really doesn't sit well.

Absolutely.
And the last 20 minutes always skew the perspective of the match as a whole - especially watching live (which I couldn't). But that doesn't mean that there are no positives to pick either, they were just mostly (entirely?) earlier in the game, and more system than individual, which is always harder (for me) to spot, especially when all emotional.
I've no idea on the bleating, as I tend not to listen to what anyone says to the press, as it's usually BS and nothing like what they say to each other.

[p/d]

Looking forward to Puja’s ‘review’ on the moment we win a scrum penalty with the ball at Earl’s feet and the Scottish pack on the floor. Do we tap and go or does Earl, turn his back to the oppo and start his ridiculous celebration yelling whilst the backs run In to pat the pack on their heads.

[Cameo]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

[Mikey Brown]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

Probably true, though we all talk on here as if we’d do a better job out there. It’s good to have that reminder that it’s incredibly hard to do basically any of this stuff under the pressure of the top level.

[Puja]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I mean, I've only done the first 15 minutes so far and that was the good bit as far as we were concerned - I suspect the reviews to get significantly more coruscating as we get deeper into the match.

Puja

[p/d]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

Like

[Banquo]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

Probably true, though we all talk on here as if we’d do a better job out there. It’s good to have that reminder that it’s incredibly hard to do basically any of this stuff under the pressure of the top level.

fair, but its what they train full time and are paid for.

[Danno]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

Probably true, though we all talk on here as if we’d do a better job out there. It’s good to have that reminder that it’s incredibly hard to do basically any of this stuff under the pressure of the top level.

fair, but its what they train full time and are paid for.

With a rather tidy 5-figure fee per game in the national side, no less. I don't think it's unfair to expect a bit more of a performance than we're seeing.

[Cameo]

I love these minute by minute's but I do think there is a damger the focus on the minutiae makes every performance looks better/less bad than it is.

I have a friend who is a terrible driver. However, if you broke it down into a play by play you would see him stopping at traffic lights 19 times out of 20, generally watching the road, and almost never hitting anything/anyone.

Equally, reading these I start to doubt how bad a performance was. You read about five competent things in a row and one mistake and think: "ah, maybe I was harsh, there was more good than bad." Oh course there was, these are professional rugby players. But the good is generally uninspired and the bad is often terrible.

I see the developmental aspect in defence. It is something new to England and it has been proven to have the potential to be a game changer when it works (and even in this game it threw Scotland off). However, I think some of you are giving too much leeway in attack. It's nothing particularly special when it works and most of the time seems to come down to one out runners who sometimes do well and sometimes don't. It shouldn't take forever to slicken up, but at this rate it seems likely that half the players in the backline will have moved on by that time.

Probably true, though we all talk on here as if we’d do a better job out there. It’s good to have that reminder that it’s incredibly hard to do basically any of this stuff under the pressure of the top level.

True, the difference between being good and terrible is a moment's hesitation or a few mistakes over a very intense 80 minutes. I think my point is that you don't need loads of glaring mistakes to end up with a poor performance . You can be competent at 95% of what you do but still just a bit shit if the good stuff you do is only good but not great (relative to the level). To me, the limited rugby England are playing means that if they are not near perfect in execution, they are nowhere.

[Mr Mwenda]

Yes, and being nearly there is not much comfort if one never arrives. That is what has really frustrated me with England. They've only seldom been able to put it together over the past 20 years.

However, it is good to be reminded that the gap is not as wide as it feels after another dismal Saturday afternoon!

Thanks, as ever, Puja. By the way

[p/d]

I’ve lost track. Were we leading or not at this point?

[Puja]

Minute 16: Scotland go for a quick restart that catches the cameraman napping, but England secure and pass back for Furbank to slice his clearance kick into touch about 30m out.

Scotland throw over the top, but they've got something wrong and the ball bounces with George doing well to snaffle it. We drive over the ruck for clean, quick ball, and it's an open goal for Care to put in a 50:22 before Scotland get their cover back in place... unfortunately it's an open goal face with Robert Soldado, as the kick goes directly into touch instead of the acres of space available to him.

Minute 17: Scotland throw to the back of the line, but Chessum has picked it and puts massive pressure on Gilchrist - he gets the ball back, but it's loose. VDM picks up the loose ball and attempts to drive through Ford, but once again we've sorted out our problem from the previous game - Earl is there to tackle low and Ford can target the ball and strip VDM of it. The ref gives the knock-on but it's converted to a penalty as SCotland dive on it and then don't let go when Underhill jackals. Itoje's hooting and weird rhythmic clapping is embarrassing, but this is a damned good start to the game by England. If only I didn't know how it ended.

Slade kicks the penalty down to just outside the 22 and England are on the attack again.

Minute 18: England throw a very good lineout to the back and it's off the top and spun into midfield. We're running a marginally different shape for once - Slade running hard onto the ball with a man on either shoulder - and this time it's turned back inside to Lawrence on the burst. I don't think it's the best use of his talents to feed him into the loose forwards like that and it's irrelevant anyway as he drops the pass. I'm unsure who I blame more there - Slade is tasked with popping a 40cm pass under no pressure and somehow manages to put it off-target, on Lawrence's hip, rather than into his hands, but it is also eminently catchable and any international back should expect to be taking that.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x1, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1

Scotland gather and kick it downfield. Freeman is back and puts up the high ball for Furbank to chase - it's a decent kick, but Ben White makes a complete cock-up and loses it in the air anyway and Furbank takes unopposed. White then redeems himself with a big tackle to send the Wing Commander backwards, but he offloads to George, who then pops to Care... who drops the ball. In mild defence, he may have thought the pass was going to Roots (who is mostly engaged in trying to get out of the way, having arrived to clear the now non-existent ruck), but he should be expecting a turnover ball to be sent to his hands ASAP and that's just a poor fumble.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x2, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1

Scotland gather (probably a knock-on of their own, but nvm) and attempt to attack a broken defence, but England do a great job. First Cole competes at the breakdown to slow the ball, then Underhill charges to force Gilchrist back inside to be munched by Genge and Roots, and then the next phase sees the full blitz employed - Chessum hurries Russell, who chooses the wrong pass and gives Darge man-and-ball which leads to a knock-on. Back for the original scrum for Care being incompetent.

Minute 19: Weirdly, the referee has set up the scrum where Scotland regathered the loose ball, which is 10m further forward than where Care knocked it on. This is the most interesting thing, as we spend the minute failing to scrum.

Minute 20: Scotland pass it into midfield, Tuipulotu takes it to the line and makes a simple offload to Jones who is completely unmarked. Jones is well brought down by Freeman and Furbank, but they've both had to run too hard to get to him and so can't kill the ball - an offload off the floor goes to Van der Merwe in support and he's going at too much pace for any England coverer to stop him before the line.

This is 100%, unequivocally, Henry Slade's fault and it's his third serious mistake in the first 20 minutes. For all his supposed experience and defensive leadership, he just... ignores Jones for some reason? He appears convinced that this is a pull-back play and goes around Jones to charge up on Russell, completely ignoring the fact that Jones is both a viable option and also very clearly his man and nobody else's. Tuipulotu doesn't do anything particularly special here - it's just running at the line and passing to a player on his shoulder.

That's not a system mistake or an issue with the blitz - that is solely an individual error from someone trying to be clever and ignoring his first job of tackling his opposite man. Absolutely fuming at that. Gift.

[Puja]

Minute 21: Russell adds the two points from a difficult angle. 7-10 and what had been a very, very quiet Murrayfield is now rocking. I don't think I'm going to stop being cross at that Slade error.

Minute 22: England kick off high, but a Scotland lifting pod is under it. Underhill is a little lucky not to get called up for tackling the lifter rather than the ball carrier, but then loses that luck when a perfectly decent turnover is given as a penalty against him. Scotland kick for touch and have a lineout just beyond the England 10m line.

Minute 23: England offer Scotland a free-throw at the front of the line, but Itoje is straight in with a Mr Tickle impression to bind the ball in and mess up the maul. Scotland eventually wrest it away, but it's slow and scrappy possession and our defence is up hard again - Earl drags down Tuipulotu and Underhill is over the ball for a jackal that's rewarded with a penalty. Good play without the ball there. Slade kicks the penalty long and we are back in the Scotland 22.

Minute 24: Weird lineout this. We put Daly in at the front, which presumably has some purpose but I've no clue what it is, as we then throw to the middle and create a maul. The maul drives so well that Earl is spat out the front. He picks himself up again and tries to drive forwards, which is a poor decision as he's on his own and surrounded by Scots. If he'd stayed down, we'd've rucked over him, but as it is he's held up and, while he does get a knee on the ground and the ref shouts tackle, he's driven into touch a second later. I was furious at that call when watching live, but on replay it's probably the right one - would've been an incredibly harsh penalty call against Scotland. Another good attacking possession wasted though.

Minute 25: We compete at the lineout, but can't get close and our choosing to jump gives Scotland leeway to drive and gain 5-6m before being brought to ground. They recycle once and then box-kick away - still England attacking ball, but now we're 38m out, rather than 20.

[Puja]

Question - do we want the discussion that basically devolved into a "WTAF Borthwick/Wigglesworth" to be moved out of this thread and into the general Scotland one or are we okay with having it all mixed in?

Puja

[Danno]

Question - do we want the discussion that basically devolved into a "WTAF Borthwick/Wigglesworth" to be moved out of this thread and into the general Scotland one or are we okay with having it all mixed in?

Puja

Prefer the former, personally.

Glad you're back on the wagon

[Puja]

Minute 26: Another great lineout drill and we take unopposed ball in the middle, off the top, which is spun out for Ben Earl to pretend to be a centre. He makes decent ground cutting back inside and we're over the gainline with quick ball. Unfortunately, Care then ruins it by being indecisive and then firing the ball at Genge's ear. I think he ideally wants to miss Genge and pass to Ford, but the passing lane's blocked by forwards and sometimes you just have to play with the runners you have. Care's saved from a third check on the RedFontCountOfDoom by Genge having decent hands, but it stops him dead to gather and he chooses to cut back inside and run sideways to find a gap. Sometimes, I think Genge thinks he's better than he is when he does stuff like that, but it works well enough this time and we go forward again for more lightning quick ball.

The next phase sees George running hard onto a flat pass and we're nearly up to the 22 in just three phases. The next phase sees us over it - Ford runs hard at the line and offloads inside to Chessum who is hauled down, but not before he makes a good 5 metres. Unfortunately the next phase sees Genge running into a brick wall which stops him dead and slows down the ball. Scotland then make a mess of the breakdown, driving through on Care, who then compounds it by giving a floaty pass to Ford which should've come with blue flashing lights on it and he gets munched by a prop.

Minute 27: We win the ruck, but the ball spits out the back. Care does well to spot it and get it away to Daly, but he's on his own. He goes for a grubber through, but it's poorly angled and always going to touch. He does get points for trying to be clever - the ball has crossed the plane of touch, but Daly reaches around Steyn to slap the ball back so it hits the Scot in the face before touching the ground. I've completely lost track of how the law works on this since they changed it, but should that have made it our ball? No complaints, as the ref and touch judge were on the wrong side to see, but I'm curious as to if that's still how the law works.

Scotland throw long over the top, which is brave considering it's not worked very well so far, but they get the ball back and White box-kicks for touch.

Minute 28: More clean lineout, this time to the front, but we dummy a maul and pass away. There's the usual Slade at 10, hard runner on his shoulder, with pull-back option to Ford, and it's so uninspired. Slade never looks like he's passing to Lawrence and doesn't go hard enough at the line to make anyone in the Scottish defence worried or misaligned with the pull-back - they just drift on to Ford. Furbank then cuts a hard line off Ford and spills the ball - again, it's not the absolute best execution of a very simple pass, but that one is perfectly catchable and very definitely Furbank's fault.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x2, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1, Furbank x1

Scotland attempt to go wide quickly, but VDM drops the ball. It's regathered and they kick long, but England have regrouped and Furbank is back. He lamps it in the air, but doesn't chase very hard or very fast, giving Kinghorn a completely free take. Scotland attempt to send up a forward runner, but Itoje is up fast to bring him down behind the gainline.

Minute 29: The next phase is passed out to Russell and we're up quick on the outside - he tries stepping inside George to give room for a half-break and offload, but Chessum thumps him from behind and the ball spills forwards. George does well to take the loose ball and we attack with the advantage, but it slows down as Care thinks about a snipe and gets caught by Ritchie and buried at the bottom of a ruck. It's slow ball, but Cole passes out to Genge who whips a left-handed pass out to Ford and frankly, that's better service than Care and Slade have provided so far.

We send Lawrence up on the crash ball and it's relatively quick possession, but no-one's noticed that Care is still feeling the effects of being Ritchied and isn't there to play away, so we get an embarrassing pause before Freeman runs in to play 9. Genge does a nice job of going right ot the gainline before popping the ball to Underhill, but unfortunately the entire Scots tight five is there in a set defensive line, so it goes nowhere. The ball presentation is ropey and we send more scrappy ball out. Itoje makes a good run against a set defence, but Scotland make a mess at the breakdown and it's slow ruck ball again.

All things told, this has been a mess for 4 phases in a row and fees like this is the time for a foot on the ball (in the footballing sense, not advocating KADAB). This is no longer good attacking ball and we need to regenerate it rather than keep sending runners into an organised defence.

But we go again - wide to Genge with a pull-back to Ford that happens too far away from the defensive line and attracts no defenders. There is some space on the outside though, with Lawrence lurking in the 13 channel, so Ford throws the miss-pass to Furbank which is promptly headered forwards. This appears to have been taken by the board as being entirely Ford's fault and I've seen it described as "a bullet pass into Furbank's face" - it's clearly not. It's not the greatest of passes, because it should be landing in his hands in front of his chest, but it is perfectly functional and Furbank both sees it coming and has his hands up to catch it - he just fucks up. I'd be embarrassed not to catch that pass and I'm an extremely portly hooker playing at level 9 (although in fairness, I would not be running at the pace Furbank does).

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x2, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1, Furbank x2

From there, Scotland catch the ball and ship it wide to DVDM, via an incredibly marginal pass that I was screaming about live - looks very forward to me, but it's churlish to complain given the quality of finish here. VDM looks like he's going inside to draw Earl in and then bolts for the outside, leaving Earl and Slade for dead...

Minute 30: ...before outpacing the covering Freeman to make the corner. Very good finish.

Once again, an absolute gift. Scotland have done nothing of any kind of note in this half, we've been utterly dominant in most respects, but our own ineptitude with ball in hand has restricted us to just 10 points and two schoolboy errors have given Scotland 14.


And, on that cheerful note, I'll call it for the day. See you later for it all going even further downhill.

Puja

[FKAS]

Minute 21: Russell adds the two points from a difficult angle. 7-10 and what had been a very, very quiet Murrayfield is now rocking. I don't think I'm going to stop being cross at that Slade error.

Whilst Slade deserves all the blame for this awful misread I was annoyed that our covering double tackle didn't stop the offload. If the second man commits in when covering a line break he's got to stop to wrap the ball up.

[Mr Mwenda]

Minute 16: Scotland go for a quick restart that catches the cameraman napping, but England secure and pass back for Furbank to slice his clearance kick into touch about 30m out.

Scotland throw over the top, but they've got something wrong and the ball bounces with George doing well to snaffle it. We drive over the ruck for clean, quick ball, and it's an open goal for Care to put in a 50:22 before Scotland get their cover back in place... unfortunately it's an open goal face with Robert Soldado, as the kick goes directly into touch instead of the acres of space available to him.

Minute 17: Scotland throw to the back of the line, but Chessum has picked it and puts massive pressure on Gilchrist - he gets the ball back, but it's loose. VDM picks up the loose ball and attempts to drive through Ford, but once again we've sorted out our problem from the previous game - Earl is there to tackle low and Ford can target the ball and strip VDM of it. The ref gives the knock-on but it's converted to a penalty as SCotland dive on it and then don't let go when Underhill jackals. Itoje's hooting and weird rhythmic clapping is embarrassing, but this is a damned good start to the game by England. If only I didn't know how it ended.

Slade kicks the penalty down to just outside the 22 and England are on the attack again.

Minute 18: England throw a very good lineout to the back and it's off the top and spun into midfield. We're running a marginally different shape for once - Slade running hard onto the ball with a man on either shoulder - and this time it's turned back inside to Lawrence on the burst. I don't think it's the best use of his talents to feed him into the loose forwards like that and it's irrelevant anyway as he drops the pass. I'm unsure who I blame more there - Slade is tasked with popping a 40cm pass under no pressure and somehow manages to put it off-target, on Lawrence's hip, rather than into his hands, but it is also eminently catchable and any international back should expect to be taking that.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x1, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1

Scotland gather and kick it downfield. Freeman is back and puts up the high ball for Furbank to chase - it's a decent kick, but Ben White makes a complete cock-up and loses it in the air anyway and Furbank takes unopposed. White then redeems himself with a big tackle to send the Wing Commander backwards, but he offloads to George, who then pops to Care... who drops the ball. In mild defence, he may have thought the pass was going to Roots (who is mostly engaged in trying to get out of the way, having arrived to clear the now non-existent ruck), but he should be expecting a turnover ball to be sent to his hands ASAP and that's just a poor fumble.

Basic handling error under little fucking pressure: Care x2, Slade x1, Ford x1, Lawrence/Slade combo x1

Scotland gather (probably a knock-on of their own, but nvm) and attempt to attack a broken defence, but England do a great job. First Cole competes at the breakdown to slow the ball, then Underhill charges to force Gilchrist back inside to be munched by Genge and Roots, and then the next phase sees the full blitz employed - Chessum hurries Russell, who chooses the wrong pass and gives Darge man-and-ball which leads to a knock-on. Back for the original scrum for Care being incompetent.

Minute 19: Weirdly, the referee has set up the scrum where Scotland regathered the loose ball, which is 10m further forward than where Care knocked it on. This is the most interesting thing, as we spend the minute failing to scrum.

Minute 20: Scotland pass it into midfield, Tuipulotu takes it to the line and makes a simple offload to Jones who is completely unmarked. Jones is well brought down by Freeman and Furbank, but they've both had to run too hard to get to him and so can't kill the ball - an offload off the floor goes to Van der Merwe in support and he's going at too much pace for any England coverer to stop him before the line.

This is 100%, unequivocally, Henry Slade's fault and it's his third serious mistake in the first 20 minutes. For all his supposed experience and defensive leadership, he just... ignores Jones for some reason? He appears convinced that this is a pull-back play and goes around Jones to charge up on Russell, completely ignoring the fact that Jones is both a viable option and also very clearly his man and nobody else's. Tuipulotu doesn't do anything particularly special here - it's just running at the line and passing to a player on his shoulder.

That's not a system mistake or an issue with the blitz - that is solely an individual error from someone trying to be clever and ignoring his first job of tackling his opposite man. Absolutely fuming at that. Gift.

It's around this point that the momentum totally shifts. Several moments of poor execution that seemed to sap all belief from the good guys. I do remember thinking that Youngs' rep improves the more we see Care, the inability to clear reliably is such a problem.

[Puja]

Minute 21: Russell adds the two points from a difficult angle. 7-10 and what had been a very, very quiet Murrayfield is now rocking. I don't think I'm going to stop being cross at that Slade error.

Whilst Slade deserves all the blame for this awful misread I was annoyed that our covering double tackle didn't stop the offload. If the second man commits in when covering a line break he's got to stop to wrap the ball up.

That feels a little harsh to me - both of them were scrambling just to bring him down by any means and there was no time to coordinate. Wasn't like one of them was specifically the second man in - they were literally both diving at him in the hope of making it.

Puja