Scotland-England: pragmatic, the Scots overthrow their best enemy for their entry into the running in the – Franceinfo

Showered from the start, both by the Scottish-style downpours that soaked the Murrayfield lawn, and by this result which they wanted to avoid at all costs. Like last year, the English fell against Scotland (20-17), Saturday February 5, for the first day of the Six Nations Tournament. Deprived of its captain and opener Owen Farrell, the XV of the Rose has long dominated the debates. Occupation, possession, conquest, almost all the lights were green, but the Scots showed insolent pragmatism carried by unfailing solidarity in a stadium that caught fire in the final.

They are thus launching their Tournament perfectly and confirming their good momentum (victories against England, France and Australia in 2021) before going to face Wales, defeated earlier by Ireland, on Saturday February 12 ( 3:15 p.m.). England will travel to Italy.

The start was one-way, punctuated by the English waves perfectly maneuvered by their young opener Marcus Smith (22), author of a test. The English came to impale themselves on a Scottish defense on the verge of breaking. Two tackles to counter the English defense, kicks in shambles to get free and respond to those of their opponents, attackers caught in the socks and pushed into touch in extremis, the XV du Chardon did not miss a single tackle for almost half an hour.

But the titanic efforts of the third line, whose representatives turned to 10 tackles each at least at the break, ended up paying off. Difficult to defend for so long without making a mistake, Marcus Smith took on the task of punishing their indiscipline against the posts (3-0, 17th) launching the battles of a match that was finally unbridled.

Except that here, Scotland is no longer the one who tries, runs out of steam before exploding. It gradually appropriates the signature of the big teams which, dominated, are capable of overturning the court of a match in a flash or two. First there was that of his back Stuart Hogg. After a quickly played touch, he fixed the defense formidably to allow Darcy Graham to break through. The winger, clever, sailed to wait for support and serve his scrum half Ben White who came as reinforcements.

Just entered the game to replace Ali Price (concussion protocol), White spun to plant his first try for his very first cape with the XV of Thistle (7-3, 19th). A glimmer of hope came to wake up a stadium that was slowly falling asleep in the face of English domination.

The second spark, which allowed the stands to definitely ignite to offer a crazy finale, came fifteen minutes from the end of the match. Again manhandled and punished by the essential Marcus Smith, author of a test in the 53rd (10-14), the Scots came back up: a pass at the foot of Finn Russell, the opener of Racing 92, towards his winger on the opposite side was deliberately volleyed into touch and forward by the last defender Cowan-Dickie. Balance sheet? A yellow card for the offender and a penalty try. The paw of Finn Russell (20-17) and the resilience of the Scottish scrum did the rest.