England win in Scotland

Awful Conditions greeted the teams on Saturday afternoon as a in form passionate Scottish side took on A English side looking to bounce back from a bad loss in Paris the week before.

England Head Coach Eddie Jones had selected another different looking English side with Willi Heinz making his first start of the Six Nations at scrum half and Tom Curry still wearing the number 8 shirt.

Eddie Jones is seemingly determined to turn Curry into a number 8 rather then selected a out and out 8 for the rest of the competition.

Scotland fielded a side that only had one change with Magnus Bradbury starting in the back row.

The game was not one for running rugby and was not going to be a try fest. With the weather having a huge influence on the game it was always going to be a game of inches.

Both teams resorting to field position and a kicking based game, although this also proved to be difficult with the unpredictable winds going around the ground it was a challenge for both teams to get good distance and control when kicking.

England started the game in a much better way than the previous week against the French, they had good early possession and controlled the attack well with Ford and Farrell using low grubber kicks to turn the Scottish defence and make them play out of their own half.

Solid defence from the Scottish halted England's attack a number of times early on and with conditions making it difficult to kick penalties and to win good line out ball the score remained 0-0 though the early parts of the game.

England won a penalty midway though the half which was converted by Farrell and England went 3-0 up.

The remaining moments of the first half where dominated by strong physical defence from both sides and a number of errors due to the conditions. Scotland did have a couple of good attacking moments in the first half with some dangerous running from the back line. But with the ruck being such a key part of the game every bit of go forward ball was soon slowed down or turned over by opposition back row at the break down.

Half time saw England go in 3-0 up and the game was any ones.

Second half was much the same of as the first with the conditions just getting worse the error count was climbing.

Scotland made a good early break and Jones won the penalty for Scotland in the English 22 which was converted by Hastings and Scotland where on the board 3-3.

After this score Scotland picked up their game and managed to put a good bit of pressure on the English in both Attack and defence.

This foothold was undone however after England hacked a low ball forward and Hogg waited for the ball to cross the line before touching it down, however this went to the TMO and it was judged that Hogg had taken the ball ovewr the line and it would be a scrum to England 5 meters out from the Scottish line.

England set the scrum and picked from 8 good Scottish defence held them out.

Ellis Genge then picked from the base and drove over the line to score. This was the foothold in the game for England and with Farrell slotting a penalty soon after England where in front 13-3 with 5 minutes to go.

Scotland showed heart in the last moments of the game drawing a penalty which Hastings converted to give Scotland the losing bonus point.

Final Score in a tough game was England 13 Scotland 6.

In review of this game i would have to say that both teams played very well and although this was not a game full of try's, it was a game you could not stop watching, both teams had to contend with terrible conditions which dictated the game more than any thing else, The game was always going to be won on fine margins and England managed to step up on Saturday and get the foot hold required to take the game away from Scotland , 13-6 might not seem like a big winning margin but in those conditions this is a big score to over come.

Scotland again played some good rugby and have clearly got some good talent and a strong game plan, the issue again comes down to taking the chances and not putting themselves in situations that become a problem. It has to be said that although Hogg is Scotland's captain and has had moments of brilliance over the last couple of games he has also caused some big problems and you could even say cost Scotland to games. With his drop ball in the first game and now the mistake he made in this match, waiting for the ball to cross the try line before touching it down, this mistake lead to a England scrum 5 meters out and then 1 phase later the try to England which was the moment Scotland lost the match. Scotland are a good team and they have been showing it in areas on the pitch they just need to be more consistent a cut down on individual errors.

England played well in tough conditions and a number of players stepped up and played well off the back of the defeat to France.

Willi Heinz played well at 9 and looked dangerous around the edge of the ruck, he should of done this more though the game. Furbank played well at full back in tough conditions. The back row where all brilliant.

I am still not convinced that Curry should be at 8 i do feel that there is to many errors at the back of the scrums due to Curry's inexperience in this position. Eddie Jones still needs to look at bringing in a 8 for the games against Wales and Ireland.

Against Scotland a lot of the errors made can be put down to the conditions but i do think that before we play against Wales or Ireland the England coaches need to look at the back row issues and get them resolved.