Six Nations 2025: ‘Opportunities missed will haunt Scotland on rough day’
When the progress was good for Scotland, they reached the edge smartly and mercilessly and ripped England apart to the Shreds, the only team interested in playing rugby.
England kicked and settled. Their fans sighed and sang. Scotland can and should have been cleared by more than a dozen, and this may have seen them. Rapier works on Bludgeon in 40 openings, but Rapier has only three leaders at the break.
England’s defense was a car accident in the first half, and the second time was fierce. It’s part of their game, it’s world-class at the start of the game. Scramble for Scotland’s strength – it’s a defensive victory.
When you lose to Scotland four times in a row, you win in any form. Ugly, of course. Flawed, no doubt. The England offense and the ongoing battles that Steve Borthwick are going to get the best fight from his players is wrong, but their belligerence and pride are nothing.
Everything in Scotland is almost good from the break from Stafford McDowall drama and has gained range from Van der Merwe, but where is the loss?
As they cannot be completely ruthless, they try to make Van der Merwe a destructive participant in the second half in the difficulty of dealing with the power of England.
England had no answer to him. They looked scared as he ran to them, the first or two defenders bounced off him, and the third was pending in hopes of the cavalry coming.
Van der Merwe was hungry for most of the second half. Scotland tried to go far but sometimes made bad decisions while the pass was in progress, while other times they were just smashed by tackles.
Townsend later said Scotland was better off on Saturday than some of his team’s matches against England. This is a stretcher, but you can see his point. The memory of all opportunities they open will haunt him.
Scotland owns 59% of its territory and 58% of its territory. They made three attempts to go to England. They carry 933 million compared to England’s 474 million. They made nine routes in two aspects of England. They defeated 35 defenders to England’s 10.
Statistics, huh? None of them matters. None of them provided comfort. If England surpassed them, they might find it easier to accept, but that is not the case.
The inevitable feeling is that at least in some way the damage done to Scotland is largely caused by their own hands – they don’t punish England when they put them on the ropes. A very painful fact during a very difficult day.
