I used to be speaking to a Scottish mate after Scotland’s Calcutta Cup win in opposition to England on Saturday and he was in a little bit of a daze about how nicely they’d performed.
I needed to persuade him. Scotland were world class with their rugby intelligence and completely deserved to win the sport.
Both groups performed nicely but Scotland performed extremely with out the ball, beneath stress and within the fallacious areas of the pitch.
I do not suppose I met an England fan post-match who thought in a different way. England were fully outplayed.
There are loads of issues to be inspired about, but England were not adequate to beat Scotland.
‘Taking Smith off didn’t make sense’
One factor that didn’t make sense was taking England fly-half Marcus Smith off for the final 20 minutes of the sport.
There had beforehand been some reluctance to start out Smith due to his lack of worldwide expertise given he’s solely 22.
After his Murrayfield efficiency, there isn’t any query that Smith is the person for England at quantity 10.
No-one can say ‘he must have skilled gamers round him’ any extra. Of course, that’s all the time going to be of profit, but we noticed from that efficiency it was not mandatory.
As we noticed when Smith was changed, England couldn’t end the sport off with George Ford although he’s in kind.
Smith regarded comfy and assured and also you should not be taking fly-halves off when they’re in complete management.
He goes to be drained and his stats usually are not going to be the place they were at the start of the sport, but he had management of the England efficiency.
I do not suppose it was mandatory to place one other fly-half in to see the sport out with solely a seven-point lead.
‘England made poor selections’
Despite the defeat, there are many issues for England followers to be inspired by.
England were good in possession and so they had attacking intent. The downside was they lacked a little bit of rugby nous.
With a lot possession, you would see what they’d been making an attempt to do on the coaching park: undergo a few phases then kick the ball in behind Scotland.
But there were actually good alternatives for England to assault via the palms slightly than kicking.
That kicking had come due to what they’d practised, considering they were enjoying away from house and the circumstances were going to be moist and slippery.
It is completely proper to have that as your go-to, but there were moments when it was time to assault and go for the strive and so they could not fairly determine when that second was.
In the second half England shoved it up their jumper a bit and altered tactic – and the primary 20 minutes went very well.
It was not till the penalty strive given after Luke Cowan-Dickie batted the ball into contact and his subsequent sin-binning when England misplaced their heads.
At 17-17, they nonetheless should have been answerable for the sport but they went chasing it, then Scotland had the momentum.
England had been in a very good place at 17-10 but they’d inexperience of their group and as quickly as that stress got here on they didn’t have something to resort to, so that they made these poor selections.
You cannot practise these issues; it isn’t one thing you may ever do in coaching. You have bought to have that understanding as knowledgeable sportsperson to do the proper factor on the proper time.
When Cowan-Dickie went off and so they gave the line-out to Joe Marler, certainly they’d sufficient expertise within the group to know not to do this. That was odd.
It will disappoint England as a result of it was pointless, but they are going to be taught from it.
‘England usually are not out of the race’
It continues to be very early days within the Six Nations and you can not write anyone off but.
England go to Italy subsequent and may get themselves again on the horse and keep in mind the best way to win a sport. Then they’re at house in opposition to Wales. England are undoubtedly not out of the race.
They will most likely battle in opposition to Ireland and France but there may be loads of time for England to bounce again.
I’m not considering there may be going to be a Grand Slam this 12 months so each group goes to lose a sport and subsequently England are in with an opportunity.
Ireland were ruthless of their 29-7 29-7 victory against Wales. They are again to the precision they’d 4 or 5 years in the past, with a bit extra intent and creativeness.
Can Scotland compete with that? They can undoubtedly give pretty much as good as France may give to Ireland.
Depending on a couple of selections and the bounce of the ball Scotland may nick it after they go to Dublin within the ultimate spherical of matches.
Matt Dawson was chatting with BBC Sport’s Becky Grey.
