Gregor Townsend on Scotland's display, Finn Russell kicking and player who had 'one of his best ever games'

The visitors lost 16-15 at Allianz Stadium but had a chance to win the game in the 79th minute following Duhan van der Merwe’s late, late try. Unfortunately, Finn Russell pulled his conversion wide, one of three failed efforts off the tee by the stand-off.

Scotland outscored their ancient adversaries by three tries to one but it was England who got their hands on the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2020. First-half tries from Ben White and Huw Jones put Scotland in the driving seat but their first-half lead was a slender 10-7. Tommy Freeman kept England in touch with a try, converted by Marcus Smith, and the latter scored two second-half penalties to move his side 13-10 ahead.

A long-range penalty from home fly-half Fin Smith made it 16-10 before van der Merwe struck late on. It wasn’t enough and Russell’s agonising miss meant Scotland fell just short in their bid to beat England five times in a row for the first time ever.

Asked how hard it had been to play well and lose, Townsend said: “I think it's probably tougher for the players because to play well you have to put huge effort in and they did that. And to be at the end of a game knowing they came so close in the effort. I've been in that changing room before and it is very tough. But from a coaching perspective, we asked them to deliver on the effort, the execution and they did that today.

“We were very close to getting a historic win and whether it was a kick or another decision at the end of the game, we'd be talking about a brilliant win. We're not. And that's credit to England for staying out in front at the end.”

Even after Russell’s missed conversion, the stand-off was able to spark one last attack as the clock ticked past 80 minutes. They got into the England half but the hosts were eventually able to wrestle Scotland into touch as tempers boiled over close to the Twickenham tunnel.

“I don't think we'd use adjectives like ‘frustrated’,” added Townsend. “I think we had to look into the second half, what was working and what England might do to repel that. And also what we needed to do to be more effective. So you learn during that first half period.

“There were a couple of occasions when we went wide, we did well and that led to tries, but at times you have to narrow up the defence and aim to get something when you get into the 22, so that was a focus for us.

“We were expecting England to have more possession in the second half and bring their game into play, so we knew there would be momentum swings. I don't think any of the players were frustrated during that half-time about not being further ahead.”

Scotland took a losing bonus point but it will come as little consolation as their Six Nations Championship challenge fizzled out. Townsend’s side have just one win from three but at least the performance against England was a significant step up from how they performed in the loss to Ireland a fortnight ago.

“It’s more just the performance,” said the coach. “I think the way the players trained this week and came together and owned the game plan, it was a really good training week. We felt confident as a coaching group that we were going to get a very good performance out of the players today. And it probably surpasses, performance-wise, what we've done here the last two or three years [times].

“Normally when you have that amount of pressure on occasions to score points, you get more on the board. So that's a work on, but three tries to one and the way that on two occasions we came back to potentially win the game. One, obviously with a try, but even at the end, I'm so proud of the group for that effort and that skill at the end of a game. They did all they could to retain the cup, but it was probably down to England's defence and also them kicking their penalties when they got them the second half.”

Townsend dismissed suggestions that he might need to look beyond Russell as his frontline goalkicker. “Finn was and is an outstanding goal kicker,” he said. “He was last season, and they were tough kicks.”

He also singled out Jamie Ritchie for special praise. “I thought Jamie had one of his best ever games for Scotland.”