England v Scotland Calcutta Cup 2016 - thoughts review

By An Opinion
February 8 2016

England Win at Murrayfield in a tense battle that showed courage and promise.

 England took to the Murrayfield turf for the age old battle that is England v Scotland in the Calcutta Cup and Won!

Scotland   9 v 15 England

England put up a strong performance from the start of this match and showed real promise for things to come.  I thought Danny Care had a great game quick ball and aware of what was around him.

The latter half of the first half got a bit nervy at times and Scotland came right back at England 6-7.  To be fair to Scotland they put up a much better performance and fight compared to previous years and really don't deserve to be bottom of the six nations table - that should have been either Wales or Ireland who could only manage a draw against each other. 

 

England's George Kruis scores the opening try

 However, that draw gives both England and France the chance of the Grand Slam (early days I know)  but England could take the triple crown.  Having said all of that we know Wales and Ireland will be gunning for us.

The Calcutta Cup match had all the rivalry you would want from a International Test and England showed they have lots of ammunition still waiting to be rolled out.

Some really good performances all around would agree with the Man of the Match Billy Vunipola who was outstanding but the team as a whole were playing as a team should.  I thought our defence excellent some missed tackles and those blasted penalties again but overall excellent performance and win.

 

  England;s Jack Nowell scores his sides second try during the 2016 RBS Six Nations match at BT Murrayfield

 Some stats for you from.......Accenture RBS Six Nations

England had 54% of Possession, 56% Territory and 12 penalties against them, compared to Scotland's 9,  Our Line Out sucess was 93% (Scotland 79%) and goes to show that you have to have the line out working otherwise you will not win the game because overall on stats Scotland was preety much with us.

Tries George Kruis (13), Jack Nowell (50)

Ball Carries Billy Vunipola 19   Mike Brown 12 Jack Nowell 9 

Metres Made Metres Made  Mike Brown 70  Billy Vunipola 51 Jack Nowell 44

Lineouts Won  George Kruis 9  Mike Brown 1 Owen Farrell 1 

Tackles  James Haskell 16  George Kruis 15 Owen Farrell 11

All in all, a great start for the NEW England and I can't wait to see the next match, which sould be a cracker as Italy seem to have upped their game and came very close to beating France last weekend ( in face they should have)!

 Well done Eddie and the Gang!