Scotland 30 England 21: Van de Merve hat-trick hands Red Rose first Six Nations loss of 2024 in thrilling match
ENGLAND’S Grand Slam hopes were left in tatters as Duhan van der Merwe crushed the Red Rose once again.
Scotland’s South African-born winger torched Twickenham with a brilliant brace 12 months ago to start the Steve Borthwick reign with a miserable defeat.
And as Murrayfield roared with joy, van der Merwe went one better with a stunning-hat-trick which left Borthwick’s bedraggled side beaten up in every possible sense.
Borthwick’s decision to bring in George Furbank and Ollie Lawrence as part of the “blitz” defence aimed at neutralising Finn Russell backfired as the home stand-off masterminded a comeback from 10 points down, kicking all six attempts at goal and creating van der Merwe’s killer third.
Furbank’s joy at putting England ahead was soon replaced by misery as he coughed up the ball for van der Merwe’s second try, as Borthwick’s side paid the price for far too many handling errors.
And with Ireland and France now lying in wait, England are in danger of ending up with yet another Groundhog Day return of just two wins out of five and that all-too familiar taste of defeat at the hands of the Scots.
Yet England – and Furbank – had made the perfect start with a superb first phase try from a scrum inside the Scottish 22.
Ben Earl picked up to feed Danny Care, who found George Ford in space.
Elliot Daly made the vital injection to within a few yards of the line, with Furbank thrilled to crash over for his first international points, Ford adding the extras.
England’s aggressive defence was forcing mistakes and another of those – at the breakdown – gave Ford three more comfortable points and putting them 10 to the good inside the first quarter of an hour.
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A false dawn, swiftly ended.
Russell had not been given a chance to ask any serious questions – but out of nothing Scotland smashed the England line to pieces to cut the gap to three.
It was another try straight off a scrum, with Sione Tuipulotu sending Hugh Jones blasting through the midfield.
He was scragged by a combination of Furbank and Tommy Freeman, but flipped the ball up to the rampaging van der Merwe, whose clever dummy created enough room for him to score, with Russell converting from out wide.
The frustration for Borthwick would have been immense. His side had looked in complete control until that point.
And it would surely have boiled over when ANOTHER error was brilliantly punished by van der Merwe.
It was a nightmare for Furbank, as Ford’s pass went through his hands and off his head straight to a Scottish shirt.
A quick pass left saw Earl isolated against van der Merwe, no contest as the winger roasted the England No 8 and then hared down the touchline to dive over in the corner, Russell again making a masterly conversion.
And when Ethan Roots was offside in front of his own posts, Russell’s right boot gave the home side a seven point lead.
Ford responded with a fine drop goal, ending that run of 17 straight Scotland points to put his team back into the game at the break.
It had been frenetic stuff – and what was required in the second period was more clarity and a clinical edge.
Instead, England imploded once again soon after the restart.
Lawrence appeared to have made up for a lost line-out when he charged down Russell’s kick, with replacement Cameron Redpath seemingly engulfed by white shirts.
Somehow he eluded all of them as he span to his right and then covered half the pitch untouched.
Quick ball allowed Russell to see van der Merwe on the left and the kick bounced beautifully into his hands with Care nowhere near close enough to stop him, another fine conversion extending the lead.
That was it for Care and Roots with Ford then staunching the flow of blood with another penalty.
England needed more, though, far more, a situation made tougher when Earl handed Russell another simple opportunity to extend the gap to 11 with only a quarter of the match left.
Russell’s third penalty soon afterwards made it even more unlikely, only for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, on for Henry Slade, to run through a huge hole on the left and cut the arrears with his first contribution.
But Fin Smith’s conversion came back off the upright and with it went any chances of England pulling off a comeback of their own.
For all the brave talk and selections, it is starting to feel like more of the same.
Player ratings:
Scotland: Kinghorn 6; Steyn 6, Jones 6, Tuipulotu 7 (Redpath 7 (Healy 6)), Van der Merwe 9; Russell 7, White 6 (Horne 6); Schoeman 7 (Hepburn 6), Turner 6 (Ashman 6), Fagerson 6 (Millar-Mills 6), Gilchrist 6 (Skinner 6), Cummings 7, Ritchie 6 (Christie 6), Darge 6, Dempsey 6
England: Furbank 6; Freeman 6, Slade 5 (Feyi-Waboso 7), Lawrence 5, Daly 6; Ford 7 (Smith 6), Care 6 (Spencer 6); Genge 6 (Marler 6), George 5 (Dan 6), Cole 6 (Stuart 6), Itoje 7, Chessum 8, Roots 6 (Martin 6), Underhill 7 (Cunningham-South 6), Earl 6
Remind yourself how the game went with SunSport’s live blog below.
All Six Nations 2024 fixtures – dates, kick-off times and TV channels
- Kick-off time: 4:45pm GMT
- Live stream: BBC iPlayer
- TV channel: BBC One