THERE is no doubting England’s quality when it gets things right but it didn’t in Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon and for falling short, gave Scotland a win it had been waiting for 10 years, taking home also the Calcutta Cup played between the two since 1879.
It wasn’t just a win.
It was a triumph which Scotland achieved in style, outsmarting its more illustrious neighbours from the south, a complete all-round performance in the first half giving it a 22-6 lead that was comfortable although not entirely safe.
In the end, the champion from the last two editions could find no answer, with Scotland dominating the breakdown and giving away less penalties. In this area, captain and blindside flanker John Barclay was outstanding and ably aided by openside Hamish Watson.
When forced to defend in the last 10 minutes when England tried to narrow the gap despite having limited time, Scotland tackled every player in white, pressuring England into a mistake in the last play of the game after going through 15 phases.
Flyhalf Finn Russell, under much scrutiny and criticism after the first two rounds, was rightly named Man-of-the-Match for having a part in all three Scotland tries but if there was going to be another similar award, centre Huw Jones would have been the most deserving, especially in the way he scored his two tries.
Another area of strength for the Scots on Saturday was the scrummaging and while it was penalised twice for illegal binding, Scotland otherwise more than matched England, even getting a penalty of its own later in the game.
What is significant here is that Scotland has started all three rounds without its first choice front row due to injuries. It was also the scrummaging that it had problems with in last year’s tournament.
Another significant change in Scotland’s game since two years ago is how the boys in blue have been finding their way past the goal-line to score tries.
Records in the last 10 years up to 2017 will show how from 2008 to 2015 Scotland’s total tries scored in each year of the competition were in single digits only.
There was a low of just two in 2009 and three each in 2008 and 2010. It was better in 2013 with seven but come 2016 Scotland managed a total of 11 tries. Last year was better still with 14.
So far this year Scotland has scored six while leaking away 7. Jones has three and fellow centre Peter Horne.
This alone should be of concern to Ireland due to its defensive lapses in the last two games.
Scotland next plays Ireland in Dublin on March 10, a game that will be followed by the one in Paris between France and England.
As it stands Ireland is the only team with a chance of winning the Grand Slam but despite saying it had fixed its defensive issues ahead of last Saturday’s game against Wales, problems remained and it managed to check a Welsh comeback just in the nick of time.
If Scotland scores another upset, England will still have a chance to win its third consecutive title if everything turns out right in Paris but France has ideas of its own and would have been buoyed at seeing how Scotland managed to turn the tables against England to make victory look not too difficult.
For coach Eddie Jones, it’s back to the drawing board.
After taking over from Stuart Lancaster, Australian Jones took England on an unbeaten 17-Test run before being dumped by Ireland 13-9 in the final round of last year’s Six Nations. Thereafter it was another seven unbeaten Tests in a row – until Edinburgh February 24, 2018.
The problem in having a long unbeaten run is that you sometimes fail to see your own weaknesses and think that you will never need a Plan B.
It has happened a few times to the world champion All Blacks dating back to that 2003 World Cup semi-final loss to the Wallabies in Sydney that came off the back of a very dominant run prior to RWC.
How Jones can turn around his team is going to be the measure of his worth as a coach but the French will want to inflict another dent.