At long last England have shaken off their Calcutta Cup blues. Never in the previous 153 years of this fixture had Scotland managed five successive wins over the auld enemy and another tartan triumph really would have had them dancing in the streets of Galashiels in Bill MacLaren’s memory. This was a desperately tight old battle though, with a second gripping home victory in consecutive Six Nations games only secured right at the death.
In the end it all hinged on whether Finn Russell could land the angled conversion following Duhan van der Merwe’s 79th-minute try. Up went the ball, end over end, and for the first half of its flight it seemed Scotland might be celebrating once more. Agonisingly for the visitors, though, it then curved just wide of the left upright to leave a below-par English side, to their immense relief, still alive in the title race.
