Gathered beneath the posts as Finn Russell lined up a potentially match-winning conversion, the England players sketched out a plan. Cut apart quite brilliantly by Scotland in the lead-up to Duhan van der Merwe’s scorching score, a game that they had seized control of appeared to be slipping from their grasp. While a crop of chasers prepared to put pressure on the Scotland kicker, Jamie George, no longer captain but still a vital voice in the leadership group, took charge, setting a strategy for the rest of the squad.
In the end, Russell’s miss meant the instructions were not required, enabling England to get out of a spot of bother. But Ben Curry’s recollections of the throes show a lucidity that England perhaps lacked last year. “We thought [Russell] was going to get it,” the replacement flanker revealed. “So Jamie says, ‘we’re going to go short, we’re going to get the ball back and then we’re going to score’.
