England 26 v Scotland 22
England took the spoils in the Battle of the Auld Enemy.
A hard-fought contest saw Scotland take an early lead after some ferocious exchanges between the two teams, with Tom Glover crossing the whitewash in the right-hand corner, he converted his own try with a fantastic touchline kick. England kicked the restart out on the full and Scotland showed that they meant business as Tyler Lindsey scored in the same corner after a Tom Glover break was halted by the English full back. Ryan Wood, like Tom before him nailed a fantastic touch-line conversion.
It wasn’t long before England replied bringing the score back to 6-12. Scotland then struggled for consistency and after 4 back-to-back sets for England, the Scottish line broke, an unconverted try bringing the score to 10-12 as Scotland clung to a slender lead.
England started to gain a foothold in the game with some good play, showing smarts in attack even though Scotland defended bravely, England scored again just before halftime after winning a penalty on the Scotland line and spreading the ball to score in the corner. Again the conversion was unsuccessful; 14-12 to England as the half time hooter sounded. The first half for both sides was a true battle in the middle with some ferocious tackling, some barn-storming runs as both teams did their countries proud.
England started the second half strongly on the back of some unforced errors, controlling the opening ten minutes turning the screw and crossing for two converted tries. Then a call to arms was made and Scotland started to play some of their best rugby getting back into the game and 7 minutes after England’s try, Scotland replied with a fantastic team try sweeping the ball across the park to Declan Smith, who scored in the right corner, unfortunately they were not able to convert the try this time, bringing the score to 26-16. After the try a back and forth battle ensued between the old rivals, with both teams unable to capitalise on the other team’s errors. Scotland threw everything at the English in the final moments, the kitchen sink doing more than one journey towards the English line, being denied as they were ruled to have not grounded a kick over the England line and hen being bungled into touch at the corner. Eventually Scotland broke through the English defences and scored just right of the posts from a barn-storming run by Tyler Lindsey to crash over for his double, however this was too late to save the day, as the final whistle blew just after Ryan Wood converted the try.
Will Barber picked up the Scottish MoM award with a tireless display in the second row, he was pushed close by hooker Logan Marsh, And try scorers Lindsay and Gliver.
The final score, 26-22 to England.
Scotland will be gutted as the game was there for the taking and in several instances gave England impetus to go forward off the back of errors and penalties. However, the Scottish lads can hold their heads high, the scoreline did not reflect the attitude and hard work every individual put in, and the game could have quite easily gone Scotland’s way. The Scotland squad will regroup, work hard and come back stronger for their next challenge. Despite the disappointment of this defeat, the team’s spirit and determination remain unbroken The Scotland squad moves on to face Wales, last years Four Nations champions in Biggar on June 28th.
Alba gu bráth!
