Scotland 30-21 England: Van der Merwe makes history in Calcutta Cup win

Duhan van der Merwe became the first player to score a Calcutta Cup hat-trick for Scotland as England were defeated by Gregor Townsend’s side for the fourth consecutive time.

It is the first time since 1972 that the Scots have beaten their oldest rivals four times a row as they recovered from a slow start to put England to the sword at Murrayfield.

It is also the first time Scotland have won four Calcutta Cups in a row in 128 years, going back to 1896 when an 11-0 win at Cathkin Park in Glasgow sealed the feat.

And it was Van Der Merwe who took the glory with three breath-taking tries which move him just one score away from equalling Scotland’s all-time record.

England struck first off a scrum on Scotland’s 22 metre line. Attacking the open side they sent Elliot Daly clear before he offloaded to George Furbank to score the opening try.

George Ford’s conversion was good to make it 7-0 to the visitors after six minutes.

England won a penalty in front of the posts in the 14th minute when prop Elliot Millar-Mills was caught infringing at the breakdown and Ford added three more points to stretch the lead.

Scotland were labouring and had barely applied an ounce of pressure but suddenly exploded into life after 19 minutes.

Sione Tuipulotu sent Huw Jones haring through the defence and when he popped the ball up from the tackle into Van der Merwe’s arms the winger powered over to score.

Finn Russell’s extra points made it 7-10.

Van der Merwe was not done there. A loose English pass rebounded to Jones who sent the Edinburgh wing scampering away from inside his own half to score in the corner.

Russell nailed the tricky touchline conversion and Scotland had the lead 14-10 after half an hour.

The Scots rode the momentum to pin England back again and an offside penalty allowed Russell to extend the lead to seven points.

With four minutes left until the break the men in white opted to kick a drop goal, with George Ford on target from the Scots ten metre line.

The sides went in at half-time with Scotland in the lead 17-13.

Scotland were not hanging around after the re-start and it was Van der Merwe taking the glory once more.

A Russell chip charged down but the re-gather by Cameron Redpath saw the replacement centre scamper into English territory.

When the ball again came to Russell’s hands he played the kick pass to the giant winger to seal his hat-trick and enter the history books.

Ford added three more from the boot for England to move the score to 24-16 with 49 minutes on the clock.
Russell responded with a penalty goal as the game moved into the final quarter with Scotland leading by 11 points.

Russell added a penalty on 65 minutes but Scotland botched the England re-start and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso fired over the try line to bring the game back to 30-21. Fin Smith missed the conversion.

History man Van der Merwe was sin binned in the 78th minute for lifting and dumped a man in the tackle but it made no impact on the final result as Scotland saw out their fourth Calcutta Cup victory in a row.

The win keeps alive their dreams of a Triple Crown and they travel to Rome to face Italy in two weeks knowing a big win could send them to Dublin on the final weekend chasing the Six Nations title.