Former England flanker Courtney Lawes has claimed that Scotland proved his point by defeating the Auld Enemy in last weekend’s Calcutta Cup clash.
Gregor Townsend’s men arguably produced their best performance since last year’s encounter with the Red Rose by securing a dominant 31-20 triumph over Steve Borthwick’s side.
It was their fifth victory in six against England with their display a far cry from the one they put in versus Italy in the Six Nations the week prior.
Before the game at Murrayfield, Lawes claimed that Scotland only raise their game when they take on the English and judging by that result, he may well be right.
Result and performance ‘reinforces’ Lawes
“I was impressed with Scotland in a lot of ways but their performance just reinforced the point I made last week: how can you play like that against England every year but lose to Italy?” he wrote in his Times column.
“I like a lot of the boys in their team as people. They’ve got a load of really good players. But any team can get up for one game a season. You’ve beaten England. Well done. But are you going to finish ahead of them in the table?”
Lawes also highlighted a comment made by the under pressure Scotland boss Townsend in the aftermath of the game.
The 52-year-old stated that the supporters had “something to smile about for the next 12 months”, which suggested that the Scots do indeed place more emphasis on the England match.
It was more likely a slip of the tongue from Townsend, with Scotland surely having greater ambitions, but Lawes felt that it was a telling moment.
“Gregor Townsend said after the win that Scotland had put a smile on peoples’ faces for 12 months. That sums up the mentality,” he wrote.
“I’d want to say, ‘Can you reproduce the quality of Saturday’s performance against Ireland in a fixture Scotland have not won since 2017?’”
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England’s issues
While Scotland were hugely impressive, England never really got started and struggled in a number of areas.
Even their supposed strengths were negated by the hosts, who managed to dominate the aerial game and use it to create opportunities.
“England weren’t at the races at Murrayfield. It is easy to see what went wrong. Scotland essentially used England’s tactics against them: launch high balls, win them back and put pace on the attack,” Lawes added.
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“We got beaten in the areas we couldn’t afford to lose, which were territory and physicality. We could not win anything in the air. We squandered try-scoring opportunities. When we built pressure we gave away turnovers or our skills would let us down.
“Harder to pin down is why we were so flat and sluggish. It’s like Scotland surprised us again with their game plan, their speed and their intensity. That should not have happened, but it is not the first time at Murrayfield that England have been caught off guard.”