Staunch Scotland Finn Russell Six Nations defence after kick agony and shirt-wearing criticism

The Scots outscored their oldest rivals by three tries to one but still lost the Calcutta Cup after Russell was off target with all three kicks at goal.

Townsend felt confident his co-captain was going to nail the conversion from close to the left touchline after Duhan van der Merwe’s 79th-minute try had brought Scotland back to within a point of England but Russell pulled it wide.

“Last year I think he was on 95 per cent [place-kicking accuracy] and he's been an excellent goal-kicker,” said the Scotland coach. “It takes more than just the skill of kicking. It takes a lot of mental focus and blocking things out.

“I was thinking, ‘I've seen him make this kick so many times for us, he's going to kick it’. But it happens. You're not going to get those kicks all the time from further out.

“To have the reaction straight after missing the kick and get another opportunity back just outside their 22, that was a real proud moment again for the team. We didn't get the win. That's ultimately what we'll be remembering next week and in years to come, that we didn't have the trophy for another year.”

It was England’s first success in the Calcutta Cup since 2020 and the result dashed hopes of a record-breaking fifth successive Scottish win in what is the world’s oldest international rugby fixtures.

The visitors led 10-7 at half-time through tries from Ben White and Huw Jones, with Tommy Freeman touching down for England. Marcus Smith landed the conversion and added two penalties in the second half to move the home side 13-10 ahead. Fin Smith then made it 16-10 with a long-range penalty before van der Merwe’s late score.

Russell attracted some flak on social media for posing in an England shirt alongside his Bath club-mate Ollie Lawrence post-match after the pair had swapped jerseys. The criticism seemed unduly harsh on the Scotland stand-off who was clearly hurting in the aftermath.

“Of course, he was down and was saying, ‘if only I'd made those kicks’,” added Townsend. “But he was very pleased by the team performance, He knows that that was a performance that should have led to us retaining the trophy. There's definitely mixed feelings when I was chatting to him in the changing room. He cares a lot, the players care a lot about playing for Scotland.

“He's been here for a number of years and he's been part of some great wins down here. He should have been part of another great win [on Saturday] because a lot of what we were doing in attack was going through the half-backs, the decision-making, the effort and the accuracy. He was a big part of that.”

Asked if he would consider changing his goalkicker, Townsend said “No, I don’t think so. Finn is and was an outstanding goal-kicker. He was last season and they were tough kicks today.”

The defeat effectively ends Scotland’s hopes of a Six Nations title challenge. Their next game is at home to Wales on March 8 and they round off their campaign away to France a week later.