Scotland can take a bow and England need to take a serious look at themselves if their hopes of a first grand slam for eight years are to be realised in Dublin on Saturday.
The good news is that they have a 100 per cent record after four consecutive wins — of which this, however, was comfortably the least impressive — and a points difference that should at least be enough to secure the Championship even should they lose.
On the downside, Scotland battled and created an element of chaos, but that should not have come as a surprise. England’s failure to deal with it effectively was.
Another concern for Martin Johnson, the England team manager, is the flat nature of the performance, especially in the first half, when England lacked shape, direction and precision. Only when the second-half cavalry arrived in the shape of Matt Banahan, initially, and then Tom Croft and Jonny Wilkinson was the necessary impetus and momentum generated. This resulted in the try for Croft, the Leicester flanker.
That prevented an embarrassing result. If defeat to South Africa was a reality check in the autumn, then so was this. The difference is that there are only six days in which to address these issues. England have to assert themselves against sides that scrap.
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The home side dominated the set-piece, with Scotland routinely rattled at the lineout, while England also edged the scrums as Andy Robinson’s side conceded too many costly penalties. Where they failed was at the breakdown. Scotland bodies lay over the ball at the ruck and slowed it down.
There was also too much of what Johnson summed up perfectly as cute rugby, with too many loose passes, too many silly penalties, too many attempts at flashy distribution. And if they turn over the ball with such alacrity on Saturday, Ireland have the personnel to punish them far more ably than Scotland could. At times the only go-forward England managed came from James Haskell.
England aspire to play with high tempo but if they do not secure good, quick ball then their game plan falls. With good Scotland defensive-line speed, England were forced on to the back foot with two centres who are not playmakers. England thus became predictable. Flood had nowhere to go.
It is an issue Johnson alluded to when he said opponents were now finding ways of stopping England. It is his task to make sure they stay one step ahead. Bringing in Wilkinson at inside centre would be a start. His high-class distribution when twice switching play in the final quarter created the try for the rampaging Croft. He took Mark Cueto’s pass and blasted his way through Dan Parks in the left-hand corner. Wilkinson’s touchline conversion and subsequent penalty gave England the necessary breathing space.
Despite losing John Barclay to the sin-bin midway through the second half, Scotland were not finished. They continued to compete and to scavenge heroically. Max Evans scored a solo try when he chipped the defence and collected before scoring and the conversion meant that, briefly, there were only three points between the sides.
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“We were clearly a little bit off it but they probably knocked us out of our stride a bit,” Johnson said.
“We had talked about the breakdown all week, and we had too many turnovers in the first half. We’ve got to be better than that.
“We didn’t get it right often enough. They were hurting and desperate and they came out fighting and to battle.
At times they won that battle because we weren’t good enough at the breakdown.”
On his return to Twickenham as Scotland coach, Robinson said the lack of a decent set-piece was their undoing.
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“We are really, really disappointed because there was a huge effort by the players who put their bodies on the line,” Robinson said.
“We’ve lost the game from our side because of our lineout and our scrum penalties. We’ve got to be more efficient at set-piece time if we want to be able to challenge the very best.
“With the pressure we put England under, I thought we asked questions of them, but you’ve got to be able to win your set-piece properly.”
It was a game punctuated by stoppages of up to 20 minutes, with a serious injury suffered by Kelly Brown when attempting to tackle Banahan only two minutes after the hulking Bath centre had come on at half-time for Mike Tindall, the England captain, who looked to have turned an ankle. The Saracens flanker appeared to be unconscious before he hit the ground after Banahan seemed to have gone into contact leading with his forearm.
Romain Poite, the referee, then tore a calf muscle, which resulted in another lengthy hold-up, which was added to when Jérôme Garces, his replacement, had to have his communications link put in place.
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Scotland can consider themselves hard done by at times. Little things are stacking up against them. That is the nature of sport when you are on a losing streak. If Barclay deserved a yellow card for deliberately slowing English ball, then so did Nick Easter when he hoofed the ball out of Rory Lawson’s hand on the England 22. Flood then went on to score his fourth penalty.
They can also question how the one occasion when a scrum half was punished for a crooked feed was against Lawson with Scotland in a decent position. Then to add injury to insult Poite pulled up and had to go off with Scotland working up a head of steam.
The game did follow the pattern against France. It was 9-9 at half-time with England benefiting from three penalties by Flood. Chris Paterson had put Scotland ahead when Chris Ashton unnecessarily flew into a ruck from the side. Flood had missed his first attempt after the Scotland front row were driven upwards. But he chipped over his opening shot when Allan Jacobsen went to ground at a scrum.
Paterson again restored Scotland’s lead when Tindall was ruled offside. Nathan Hines then failed to release to restore parity and Jacobsen conceded again for not binding. However, they were pegged back by Ruaridh Jackson’s composed dropped goal from 35 metres, the last action of the first half.
Scorers: England: Try: Croft (67min). Conversion: Wilkinson. Penalty goals: Flood 4 (14, 23, 30, 55), Wilkinson (78). Scotland: Try: Evans (72). Conversion: Paterson. Penalty goals: Paterson 2 (3, 20). Dropped goal: Jackson (40).
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Scoring sequence (England first): 0-3, 3-3, 3-6, 6-6, 9-6, 9-9 (half-time), 12-9, 19-9, 19-16, 22-16.
England: B Foden; C Ashton, M Tindall (rep: M Banahan, 41), S Hape, M Cueto; T Flood (rep: J Wilkinson, 61), B Youngs (rep: D Care, 54); A Corbisiero, D Hartley (rep: S Thompson, 61), D Cole (rep: P Doran-Jones, 74), L Deacon (rep: S Shaw, 61), T Palmer, T Wood (rep: T Croft, 61), J Haskell, N Easter.
Scotland: C Paterson; S Danielli, J Ansbro (rep: N De Luca, 72), S Lamont, M Evans; R Jackson (rep: D Parks, 54), R Lawson (rep: M Blair, 54); A Jacobsen, R Ford (rep: S Lawson, 65), M Low (rep: G Cross, 52), R Gray, A Kellock, N Hines (rep: A Strokosch, 68), J Barclay, K Brown (rep: R Vernon, 42).
Referee: R Poite (France; rep: J Garces, 58).
Attendance: 82,120.
• England Women kept up their quest for a grand slam against Scotland at Twickenham yesterday. Their match, which started 20 minutes after the Calcutta Cup was presented, was won 89-0 by England, who scored 15 tries. Katherine Merchant went over in the first minute and Maggie Alphonsi was one of six players to claim a brace of tries with two in 13 minutes in the second half.