[2025 Six Nations] England vs Scotland - 22/02/25

[Rinkadink]

Has Randall nailed a box kick yet in an England shirt? It's incomprehensible to me that Spencer is out on his ear.

Randall has boxed plenty well in the past for England and today was the catalyst for upping the tempo. Perhaps his protection was bad? Mitchell made far worse errors previously. LCD was fine too, Slade... Ehh. We all know that England just need any of the starting premiership 12s for now, it would do a job no problem. Ditto at 15.

Scrum went well but back row and locks were largely poor, securing and presenting the ball was about the worst I've seen from England in quite some time. No idea what happened there. Don't believe it was Scottish pressure, lowlight was Chessum lazing around with only England players left in the ruck whilst Mitchell was desperately attempting to get the ball, ended up with Mitchell basically dead lifting Chessum out of the ruck to expose it. So many post contact meters won yet the ball off it was abysmal. That shouldn't be the case.

 

[Rinkadink]

He slices every single one.

One box kick wasn't great yet England retained possession well from it =/= every kick sliced. The other incident was a charge down from a scrappy ruck. Otherwise fine and definitely upped the tempo from Mitchell.

Randall has also barely played any rugby for quite some time due to Borthwick's poor management to boot, so some rust is to be expected. No doubt Bristol will have to recondition him again.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Has Randall nailed a box kick yet in an England shirt? It's incomprehensible to me that Spencer is out on his ear.

Depends what you mean by 'nailed'. He's managed to nail us behind the gainline pretty regularly.

Not sure Spencer is the answer either, he could slow down a coma patient

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

That's a real head scratcher.

1 try to 3 and some shocking defence.

Some v good luck that Russell didn't have his kicking boots. Do we have Graham's head to thank?

Freeman's pretty good in the air but still amazed how often we stuck it up in the air to contest vs Kinghorn and McVdM.

Scots forwards looked a bit overpowered in the 2nd half. Thought that was quite a big difference.

It was pretty horrible, but that's a monkey off our back. And although I don't want to say a win's a win, a win is a win.

2023 - 2 wins

2024 - 3 wins

2025 - really should be 4 wins.

So you know what's coming next year.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

A bland slam

 

[Geordie]

Wow ..England's top tackler Fin Smith!! 16 tackles thats not acceptable.

Chessum next with 15

Slade 12 tackles ....but missed 5!!!! Not good for the defensive leader!!!

 

[Geordie]

That's a real head scratcher.

1 try to 3 and some shocking defence.

Some v good luck that Russell didn't have his kicking boots. Do we have Graham's head to thank?

Freeman's pretty good in the air but still amazed how often we stuck it up in the air to contest vs Kinghorn and McVdM.

Scots forwards looked a bit overpowered in the 2nd half. Thought that was quite a big difference.

It was pretty horrible, but that's a monkey off our back. And although I don't want to say a win's a win, a win is a win.

2023 - 2 wins

2024 - 3 wins

2025 - really should be 4 wins.

So you know what's coming next year.

Hang on...Wales looked better today so you just know what's coming!!

 

[Wasps92]

Wow ..England's top tackler Fin Smith!! 16 tackles thats not acceptable.

Chessum next with 15

Slade 12 tackles ....but missed 5!!!! Not good for the defensive leader!!!

Both centres were poor today but whilst there's a lot of upside with Lawrence, England have to find an upgrade on Slade.

 

[Geordie]

Both centres were poor today but whilst there's a lot of upside with Lawrence, England have to find an upgrade on Slade.

Yeah that's my thoughts. Lawrence at 13 can be very good ..but we need to find a proper 12. The summer tour MUST have one priority of finding that.

 

[Geordie]

ENG Tackles Missed Tackles
M SmithFB 3 2
T FreemanW 10 0
O LawrenceC 9 3
H SladeC 12 5
O Sleightholme W 4 2
F Smith FH 16 4
A MitchellSH 5 2
E GengeP 7 0
L Cowan-DickieH 10 1
W StuartP 9 1
M ItojeL 11 1
O ChessumL 15 2
T CurryFL 5 1
B EarlFL 13 2
T WillisN8 9 1
J GeorgeR 12 1
F BaxterR 3 1
J HeyesR 7 2
T HillR 4 2
C Cunningham-SouthR 8 3
B CurryR 13 0
H RandallR 6 0
E DalyR 3 0

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

ENGTacklesMissed Tackles
M SmithFB32
T FreemanW100
O LawrenceC93
H SladeC125
O SleightholmeW42
F SmithFH164
A MitchellSH52
E GengeP70
L Cowan-DickieH101
W StuartP91
M ItojeL111
O ChessumL152
T CurryFL51
B EarlFL132
T WillisN891
J GeorgeR121
F BaxterR31
J HeyesR72
T HillR42
C Cunningham-SouthR83
B CurryR130
H RandallR60
E DalyR30

Blimey that's some going for Hill in 8 seconds!

 

[spartan32]

Not sure if it's already been discussed, but Daly has made a bit of a screaming come back. Thought he was dead handy when he came on. Doesn't look good for Slieghtholm who looked anonymous, and has done for all three games so far. Maybe we should start with Daly for Italy. Think he may deserve a start.

That was a really poor performance from England. A few flashes of attack that looked good, but we seemed lack any confidence to actually attack. The kick chase was also poor though so that left us nowhere in attack. Scrum looked solid and probably saved us a little. But let's make no mistake, Scotland snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The mercurial Russell may just have played himself out of a Lions tour with that one.

Not sure what England can take from this other than a win, which I don't think is going to be enough to win the tournament. No BP and only one try scored. It's not impossible, but I think the best we are likely to expect now is 3rd. With Wales performing so badly and Italy being Italy, we aren't going to learn much from those games. Even so we better bloody well put a decent score on both of them and start displaying some attacking ability. This defend to win BS has to end!!

It's a win though, and hoodoo is broken, the Calcutta Cup is back where it belongs, and SB gets a stay of execution.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm not blaming or criticising F Smith but today he hardly controlled or lit up the attack, people were very quick to credit him last week for game management and bringing people into it apparently in a way Marcus can't.

 

[BPM]

Well Wales were massively improved today. Another few weeks and I wouldn't be amazed to see them beat England.

OTOH, I also wouldn't rule out France beating Ireland.

 

[BPM]

I'm not blaming or criticising F Smith but today he hardly controlled or lit up the attack, people were very quick to credit him last week for game management and bringing people into it apparently in a way Marcus can't.

No point in talking about it given we barely attacked.

 

[duncanb]

Absolutely dire rugby. Compare this aide to the u20's. Does the Premiership just drain everything out of them?

Peen actually produces a lot of tries and attacking rugby
SB could stay as a CEO head coach but dump attack a d defence coach .
And let him be fall guy.

 

[Jakedood]

No point in talking about it given we barely attacked.

I thought he looked better when England found the territory and field position to attack a little more in the second half
Scotland just pinned them back first half with winning every. Single. Kick battle. Every one.
He did have lovely hands and timing on the pass to create some gaps for Lawrence et al though, and defensively made his mark for sure

 

[Wasps92]

Confused why kicking was such a big part of our plan today when you consider we were asking our wingers to duel with Kinghorn and van der Merwe.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

After the excitement of Scotland's last-minute try, the ending was somewhat anticlimatic.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Confused why kicking was such a big part of our plan today when you consider we were asking our wingers to duel with Kinghorn and van der Merwe.

Freeman ok ,Sleightholme was just a bizarre choice