Virtuoso Van der Merwe display sees Scotland beat England to retain Calcutta Cup

Scotland registered their second win of the 2024 Six Nations as they beat England 30-21 to hoist the Calcutta Cup once again.

Their fourth consecutive victory over England, it sees Scotland move into second in the table and makes their final-day showdown with Ireland even more tantalising.

Finn Russell was flawless from the tee and combined for three stunning tries from winger Duhan van der Merwe to overcome their visitors.

England managed to impose themselves at times through their power and the set piece, with George Furbank’s opening try their defining moment, but Scotland did enough to get over the line.

Beating England is, if it’s not already, becoming routine for Scotland. Their fourth consecutive Calcutta Cup comes as no surprise.

But as most matches between these two are, it was frantic, chaotic, and full of errors. Yet those scrappy periods were bookended by moments of magic. Scotland, put simply, were able to craft more moments of magic out of Saturday’s chaos.

England’s opening score from George Furbank was their finest play of the day off a finely crafted scrum move, which was followed by a penalty from George Ford.

Scotland scored 17 unanswered points in the first half after going down 10-0 in an opening 20 minutes largely controlled by England.

Van der Merwe scored the first of his three in the 19th minute after Huw Jones burst through England’s defence with an incisive short angle off Sione Tuipulotu. Jones offloaded to the winger from the deck and he drives right over the line.

It was his second that shocked England, and in hindsight wrote them out of the game entirely. Jones pounced on a sloppy drop from Furbank and popped to Van der Merwe who rampaged from 50 metres and scored with a spectacular finish to put his side in front.

Retrospectively, the game was Scotland’s to win from that moment. Russell scored six penalties and was 100% from the tee. Van der Merwe nabbed his third try just five minutes into the second half from a cross-field chip from Russell after Cameron Redpath spun and scythed his way 50 metres down the pitch.

The game never really settled, and neither did either side, but Scotland were able to thrive in a game without structure. England’s attack continued to falter. The power game that gave them the head start in the first 20 minutes faded away and Scotland were able to easily absorb England’s one-up runners.

Despite a drop goal from Ford and simple yet sharp try from Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Russell kicked and kicked with ease as England coughed up penalties on route to the 30-21 win.

Scotland won that match, no doubt about it, and were able to adapt and control the ebb and flow of the game and find a way back from 10-0 down. But England’s display was full of costly errors. A total of 24 handling errors and 22 turnovers conceded in total.

A stray pass that bounced off George Furbank’s head jumped into Scottish hands and led to van der Merwe’s second try from 50 metres out.

Unfortunate penalties were coughed up by even the most dependable of players, the likes of Maro Itoje and Ben Earl swept up in Scotland’s surge. Three of those penalties allowed Finn Russell to chalk up nine points on the board – the number of points by which England lost today.

Their attack too was unable to adapt. The power and punch of the first 20 minutes descended into negligible one-up carries that Scotland swallowed with ease. There were moments of promise as the visitors raced ahead by 10 points, but the 60 minutes after that saw England shoot themselves in the foot on numerous occasions.

After scoring two tries in this fixture last year, the winger went a step further and became the first player to score a hat trick of tries against England in the Six Nations.

His first two showcased his world class abilities and speed, the second of which was a rampaging 50 metre run after England coughed up possession. The third was a walk-in, but was crafted brilliantly by colleagues Finn Russell and Cam Redpath, and its ease just shows the winger’s supreme positiioning.

The powerful player was a constant throughout the game as Scotland showed the gulf between their attack and England’s. Despite leaving the pitch in the last two minutes with a yellow card, that did little to diminish his fabulous performance.

Scotland: Kinghorn 7, Steyn 7, Jones 8, Tuipulotu 6, Van der Merwe 9, Russell 8, White 7, Schoeman 8, Turner 7, Fagerson 7, Gilchrist 7, Cummings 8, Ritchie 7, Darge 9, Dempsey 8.

Replacements: Ewan Ashman 8, Alec Hepburn 7, Elliot Millar-Mills 5, Sam Skinner 6, Andy Christie 7, George Horne 7, Ben Healy 6, Cameron Redpath 7.

England: Furbank 5, Freeman 6, Slade 4. Lawrence 4, Daly 5.5, Ford, 4, Care 4, Genge 6, George 6, Cole 6, Itoje 6, Chessum 6, Roots 5, Underhill 7, Earl 8.

Replacements: Theo Dan 6, Joe Marler 6, Will Stuart 5, George Martin 6, Chandler Cunningham-South 6, Ben Spencer 6, Fin Smith 6, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso 7.

5′ TRY! SCOTLAND 0-7 ENGLAND (FURBANK) – A well executed move between Danny Care, Ford, and Elliot Daly with Ollie Lawrence as a decoy, and Furbank slides in with ease.

19′ TRY! SCOTLAND (VAN DER MERWE) 7-10 ENGLAND – Huw Jones bursts through the centre of the park and is tackled in the 22, offloading off the deck to the winger to finish off.

30′ TRY! SCOTLAND (VAN DER MERWE) 14-10 ENGLAND – The ball slips from Furbank’s grasp and Huw Jones pounces and offloads to the winger, who presses on the gas and no one can touch him from 50 metres out. What a score.

46′ TRY! SCOTLAND (VAN DER MERWE) 24-13 ENGLAND – Scotland turned the pressure from a Russell kick charged down into attack as Redpath cuts through a scrambling England defence. Russell chips to van der Merwe’s corner and the winger strolls over for this third.

67′ TRY! SCOTLAND 30-21 ENGLAND (IMMANUEL FEYI-WABOSO) – Immanuel Feyi-Waboso floats through an enormous gap in Scotland’s defence left by Redpath, and the Exeter winger gets his first international try just seconds after coming onto the pitch.