England handed reality check by brilliant Scotland in Edinburgh

EDINBURGH, Scotland — England must be tired of watching Scotsman Duhan van der Merwe. He's already considered one of the most ruthless wingers in the sport, but he's an inch taller against England.

It was his remarkable hat-trick on Saturday, under the lights at Murrayfield, that kept the Calcutta Cup north of the border.

Having already scored key tries in Scotland's two Calcutta Cup victories at Twickenham in 2021 and 2023, Van der Merwe's trio at home helped the hosts to a 30-21 triumph over England, their fourth victory in the rebound against England. old enemy. The only respite the visitors got from the imposing winger came in the 79th minute when he was sin-binned for an illegal tackle.

But even then, they could not escape his influence. As he left the field, the stadium commentator declared that he had been crowned player of the match. The crowd rose as one to salute a remarkable performance.

At this point, Scotland's victory was a foregone conclusion. Steve Borthwick had already left the attached coaches box. He stood there, at the back of the stand, in the cold air, watching Scotland close out the match. The Scottish fans turned and saw him ashen-faced, threw a few verbal barbs at him and reveled in his wide-eyed stare. It was the face of a man who had been given an accurate barometer of his team's situation.

This match was drenched in the white of England, red roses all over the tape story between the two teams. But not anymore. It’s the era of Scottish dominance in the sport’s oldest game. England arrived here as underdogs, but with quiet confidence hoping to turn the tide in their favor.

But although they came to Edinburgh with a two-for-two record in this year's Six Nations, they were duly sent home to think again.

Scotland looked settled, comfortable in his own skin. That's what happens when you have seven years of continuity in the manager's box and a team that plays to the pace of the world's best fly-half, Finn Russell. England are evolving, still figuring out Felix Jones' blitz defense, and with a group of players where you have experience merged with youngsters who are finding their feet at Test level.

Some of England's management has been poor and is sometimes far too temperamental when the opportunity presents itself. Their new blitz defense is still a work in progress. Scotland, by contrast, were calm – comfortable collecting passes and finding territory to release the pressure valve when necessary, but also capable of converting their forays into England's 22 points. They played up to the status of favorites, accepting the expectations around this group.

As the first Scottish player to score a hat-trick against England, Van der Merwe will be the toast of Edinburgh tonight and until these teams next meet in a year's time. He was completely ruthless. His first try came behind Scotland, exploiting a gap in the England defense in midfield. Henry Slade was caught looking at Russell instead of the ball – Sione Tuipulotu pushed back Huw Jones, an open field in front of him, and after eating up half the field he put Van der Merwe over.

The second in the 29th minute was a remarkable piece of quick thinking from the Scottish winger. George Furbank – starting ahead of Freddie Steward at fullback for England – failed to catch a pass from George Ford and Scotland duly intercepted it. Jones' offload found Van der Merwe in space on the wing – exploiting the under-equipped areas in the blitz defense, and he rounded a wrong-footed Ben Earl to sprint away from the covering defense and score in the corner.

The third – in the 45th minute – came on a Cameron Redpath break, again finding space in the middle of the England line, then on a Russell cross kick where a galloping Van der Merwe trotted into the corner for his third. Everyone plays slightly differently but each is completely ruthless.

“We had a very good first phase, there was a lot of free space and I knew Finn [Russell] I was going to give it to myself,” Van der Merwe said.

“Luckily for me it bounced in my hands and to get my first hat-trick against England is incredible. I must wake up and want to score tries. I guess I'm just the lucky one to get them.”

Scotland's errors were few and far between. It was a well-oiled machine, flying through the gears and they never looked troubled. Russell brings that calmness, but there have been other brilliant performances from this team. Blair Kinghorn was naturally assured at full back while Rory Darge was brilliant around the ruck, preventing England from getting the ball out quickly and being a brilliant nuisance.

How Scotland must lament this controversial call in the final moments of their match against France, where they thought they had a winning score only to see it ruled out by a questionable call. If it had gone as planned, Scotland would still be in contention for the Grand Slam, alongside Ireland.

“The victory is huge. It's unique, we were playing for the trophy today and for us it's very important,” said Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend.

“Now we can look to the next two games and see how we can improve. Showing that resilience to come back and score 30 points shows what this team is capable of. There are improvements to be made and we want to go to the final . week with an opportunity to still be in the championship.

England arrived in Edinburgh with Grand Slam hopes remaining, but mistakes let them down. There were positives: they scored first with a superb first-phase try, with Furbank crashing over after just five minutes. In the 69th minute, as England tried to get back into the match, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso with his first touch as he judged his run perfectly to score his first Test try.

Sam Underhill was a threat around the breakdown, winning two penalties, but it was the inaccuracies that will trouble Borthwick. They are clearly still adjusting to the defensive system and, simply put, there have been too many mistakes.

“What is very clear is that if you make so many handling errors at this level it is very difficult to win, especially against a team of the quality of Scotland,” Borthwick said.

“Ultimately we made it too easy for them, but they were very clinical. An important lesson for our team as it develops is that this number of turnovers makes it very difficult to win.

“We would all like the progression to be on a nice linear trajectory, but that's not the case, especially at this level. You see a team that is trying to develop and add layers to their game but has made mistakes today. Sometimes you get punished for it, sometimes you don't. It's a really painful lesson.

It was a reality check for England. After victories against Italy and Wales, this challenge was of a higher standard and Scotland showed their superiority.

Van der Merwe will grab the headlines, but it was Scotland who exerted even more of their grip on this match.