It was a team selection that suggested something different from England — a determination to loosen their self-imposed shackles. Freddie Steward was dropped for the counterattacking class of George Furbank, and Manu Tuilagi, although fit, was omitted from the match-day 23.
It was as if the management had decided to prove their critics wrong. In the process we witnessed a game in which England produced the best we have seen from them in the reign of Steve Borthwick.
There was also, especially in the first half, some of the untidiest play produced during the head coach’s tenure. But the reason for some of the sloppy stuff was directly due to an attempt to play with balance and variety.
• England all heart but no power as Van der Merwe exposes gulf in class
Considering this was a game England had to win after three straight Calcutta Cup losses, the thinking can best be described as heroically insane.
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When Ollie Lawrence made his Six Nations debut against Scotland in the Eddie Jones era, he touched the ball only once in the 69 minutes he was on the field.
He was far more involved, for good and bad, in Edinburgh on Saturday. Within five minutes England had scored their best try since Borthwick took over. Lawrence wasn’t involved as a carrier but nevertheless he was involved. The first-phase try was a thing of ravishing beauty for English fans long starved of attacking intent.
The warning signs for Scotland of what England were looking to do were there in the first few minutes of the match as Tommy Freeman and Lawrence were used as decoys in a move that broke down. It was eminently forgettable.
A few minutes later a set-piece training-ground exercise was turned into a sublime Test try. Lawrence was again a decoy at inside centre as Ben Earl burst off an England scrum. He passed on to Danny Care. Now it was Henry Slade making the acute dummy run to fix the inside defence.
Care fed George Ford, who timed his pass for the onrushing blind-side wing, Elliot Daly. Whereas Freeman was a decoy, the Saracen was the support link between the half backs and Furbank, who flew into the space England had forged for a quite fabulous try.
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No matter what was to occur for the next 75 minutes, there is a vestige of hope for anyone who believes England have the attributes to play the game other than exclusively through the boot.
That warm, consoling faith in the future was needed sure enough, as passes were thrown in the hurly-burly of Murrayfield in all directions, too many of them failing to stick.
This was experimental rugby in the unforgiving environment of the Test arena. Extremely naive but forgivable for those with a longer-term vision.
Lawrence didn’t carry as often as he would have liked. That was not because England ignored him as they did in 2021. This time he couldn’t catch a pass Ford placed too far in front of him. But Ford must have been shocked himself to have to reach high above his head to gather an inaccurate pass from Furbank.
Later in the half it appeared that the full back bounced an unsympathetic pass from Ford off his head. Ambitious? Yes. Accurate? Miles off the mark as Duhan van der Merwe took exhilarating advantage.
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So the first half continued in its slapstick way. Slade ran a straight line to fix some space for Lawrence on the inside. Between the two of them another ball hit the turf.
Most of Lawrence’s best work has been on the outside of Finn Russell in Bath’s blue, black and white. Here he was struggling to impose himself in the No 12 shirt, other than as a decoy.
The man who cuts the straightest lines in the Premiership was reduced to being a lateral-running inside centre throwing a dreadful pass to nobody but the touchline.
In contrast Sione Tuipulotu ran telling lines and popped Huw Jones into the space from which Van der Merwe scored the first of his hat-trick of tries.
He only played 40 minutes but in that time he reminded us what a specialist No 12 looks and plays like.
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Irony of ironies, it was Cameron Redpath — the replacement for the injured Tuipulotu and the man who fits between Russell and Lawrence for Bath — whose broken-field break straight down the middle enabled Russell to deliver the cross-kick from which Van der Merwe scored his third try.
What England would have given for a midfield of Russell, Redpath and Lawrence.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso emerged from the bench and slashed from right wing to left flank to bisect Scotland for a try. Here was another hint for the future.
Worries for the present include the lack of touches Freeman received. It wasn’t until the 48th minute he received ball with room to move. England have to get men like these wings on the ball more often. That they failed in Edinburgh was down more to the inaccuracy of their play rather than any lack of ambition.
Had they won a game they needed to win to end a bogey that emphasises the problem of the England team by playing ten-man rugby, fair enough. The principle of performance over result should have been shelved.
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The Furbank try was glorious, the intent commendable but for a head coach who prides himself on winning, full stop, this performance was nothing less than plain weird.
