Scotland 15-9 England
Sat 8 March, 2008
Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Scotland claimed a famous victory, and their first of the 2008 Six Nations Championship, to take the scalp of their most famous opponents, England. In a less than pretty match to watch, Scotland came out top to finally give their long suffering supporters something to sing about.

With heavy rain and a swirling wind around Murrayfield, the conditions weren’t conducive to producing a classic game of rugby, but as Scotland proved, handling the elements can be as important a factor of this game as kicking or passing.

The main talking before the game was the sensational dropping of Danny Cipriani from the English side, after he was caught leaving a night club in the early hours of Thursday morning. And with criticism of England stalwart kicker Jonny Wilkinson mounting, things were never going to be easy for the English, still reeling from their World Cup Final defeat, but on a high after last weekend’s win against France.

Scotland took an early lead with a trademark penalty from Chris Paterson after only nine minutes. The kick was his 27th successful goal kick at international level. By the end of the game he made that tally 30, with no misses, and another match with a 100% kicking record.

Rory Lamont suffered what appeared to be a very serious head injury midway through the first half, when Iain Balshaw followed through with his legs to crash into the Scotland players skull. Knocked unconscious for several minutes, Lamont was eventually carried off the field of play on a stretcher, after medical attention and oxygen, and was rushed to hospital. Reports later said he was recovering well.

Despite the tackle, Balshaw was amazingly allowed to stay on the field, and the referee further confused most people watching, by awarding a penalty to the visiting team.

This only seemed to spur Scotland on, and in the face of intense English pressure the Scotland defence held well. England kicked to touch to go for Tries instead direct kicks at goal, but still the Scotland defence stood up to the task tackling anything in a white shirt that moved.

Wilkinson’s penalty after 27 minutes took the game to 3-3, but it also saw Neil Jenkins’ world record beaten, as Wilkinson becomes the highest scorer in the history of Test rugby with 1099 points.

Scotland fought back into it, driving forward and scoring two more Paterson penalties to give them a lead of 9-3 lead at the interval.

Scotland began the second half in similar fashion, going 15-3 ahead with two penalties from Paterson and Parks respectively. Neither side created much in attack for a period, mostly due to equally strong defences, but it was Scotland that slowly seemed get the upper hand in possession and strong drives into the England pack.

The traditional England loss of discipline when forced into a corner reared its ugly head once more, which Scotland reacted to well, refusing to become embroiled in such negative tactics. But Wilkinson took advantage of some Scotland errors, and managed to take two further penalty kicks before the end, cutting the gap between the teams to only six points with ten minutes to go.

With England now within a Try of taking the game, and Scotland battling hard to stay ahead, Wilkinson’s inability to remain a consistent force showed up, when he was substituted along with captain Phil Vickery. Their withdrawal unsettled England, who perhaps rely too heavily on too few payers to form a team. The change allowed Scotland took take the upper hand again, and as the clock ticked down, the fans inside Murrayfield created a cauldron of noise to spur the players over the finish line.

When the full time whistle blew Murrayfield, Edinburgh, and Scotland erupted in joy. The Calcutta Cup was paraded and a long party into the wee sma’ hours began. They deserved the victory on the day, and again have something fond to look back on, but the result can’t mask what will still be considered a very unsuccessful campaign if they don’t start building on it soon.

The one thing on every Scot’s lips on Saturday night was: “Why can’t they play like that for every game?”

Teams

Scotland
Southwell; Lamont, Webster, Morrison, Walker; Paterson, Blair; Jacobsen, Ford, Murray, Hines, MacLeod,Strokosch, Taylor, Hogg.

Replacements: Parks for Lamont (21), Lawson for Blair (76), Dickinson for Jacobsen (64), Thomson for Ford (25), Smith for Murray (68), White for MacLeod (63), Brown for Hogg (72).

England
Balshaw; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo; Wilkinson, Wigglesworth; Sheridan, Mears, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Croft, Easter, Lipman.

Replacements: Tait for Flood (66), C. Hodgson for Wilkinson (70), Chuter for Mears (67), Stevens for Vickery (70), Kay for Shaw (66), Narraway for Lipman (73).
Not Used: P. Hodgson.

Statistics and Info

Scotland
Pens: 5

England
Pens: 3

Man of the Match: Mike Blair (SCO)
Referee: Ref: J Kaplan (SA)