English hubris was the theme in the buildup to game, but any hope Scotland nurtured that the old enemy would be self-absorbed after last December’s victory over New Zealand disappeared in the opening moments.
It is 30 years since the men in blue last won at Twickenham and so completely were their clothes stolen at the breakdown that they may as well have been competing for the Oh! Calcutta Cup.
The tackle area has been a source of angst for England’s followers since the days when Neil Back and Richard Hill roamed rugby fields, and if they do not operate here with a back row approved of by purists, lacking a specialist breakaway, the emergence of Joe Launchbury in the second row has made them markedly more efficient in that area.
The second-row may be fresh-faced and yet to gain the scars of battle, but he plays with the assuredness and maturity of someone a decade older than his 21 years. It does not undermine the contribution of Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood at the breakdown to contend that Launchbury’s presence and anticipation were pivotal in allowing quick possession for the half-backs, who used it to move around Scotland’s forwards.
Launchbury scored a try in the second half, only for it to be ruled out because Tom Youngs had committed a high challenge in the buildup. The Leicester hooker was immediately hauled off: it was the third penalty he had conceded in a game his team had dominated and it would have been a chastening experience to be hauled off for indiscipline and replaced by someone who is no stranger to the workings of disciplinary panels, Dylan Hartley.
Youngs’s over-exuberance was one of the few false notes hit by England. A year ago, they made a tentative start under Stuart Lancaster and his lieutenants, like cubs opening their eyes for the first time, but they have long seen the light. Ireland in Dublin next Sunday will ask harder questions than Scotland at HQ, but what was impressive about the men in white was the way they recovered from setbacks.
They took the game to Scotland from the off, Ben Morgan riding tackles by Tim Visser and Greig Laidlaw, but early moves were halted by errors, many unforced. Billy Twelvetrees’s first two contributions in international rugby were a knock-on and an off-load to an opponent, but he kept looking for the ball and there was a point in the opening half when England effectively had three first receivers, Twelvetrees, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode, stretching an overworked defence until it snapped.
The emphasis from the outset was on speed, not with the ball in hand because one commodity England are lacking is searing pace, but in thought. England had struggled to secure quick possession against Australia and South Africa last autumn, as they had in the 2012 Six Nations, but their opening try on 30 minutes was an example of how they had changed.
Launchbury appeared in the midfield after a series of attacks, punching a hole as he headed for the posts. He was eventually hauled down, but the ball was presented for Ben Youngs to pass immediately to Chris Ashton, who had one of the least demanding of his 17 international tries, even if the referee, Alain Rolland, asked the television official to verify it.
England’s other three tries had the same hallmark, destroying a maxim of the modern game that teams do not score tries after play has been taken through more than a couple of phases. Twelvetrees pocketed the second after Scotland had been pulled from one side of the pitch to the other two minutes after the restart, the second-row Geoff Parling scored the third after more phase play and a long, defence-breaching pass from Farrell, and the replacement Danny Care dived over for the final try after Toby Flood’s weaving run had taken play into Scotland’s 22.
England had other chances that were passed up through poor passing and handling on a dry day, but it was the intent they showed that marked out the progress they had made under Lancaster. They had talked for months about perfecting a running game, without undermining their strength in the set pieces, and their words amounted to something, even if Ireland and France in the coming round will squeeze them harder than Scotland.
The Scots were cleaned out at the breakdown and played 70% of the game in their own territory. That they scored two tries was a credit to their opportunism and refusal to concede defeat: the first, scored by the New Zealand-born wing Sean Maitland, who was making his debut, followed a 10th-minute counterattack by the full-back Stuart Hogg, who claimed the second in the final quarter after another breakout.
The only other real chance Scotland had was in the first-half was when David Denton won an attacking lineout, only for Euan Murray to be penalised at a subsequent ruck. Otherwise they were locked in a defensive effort against a team that, shredding their stereotype, were passing in contact and seeking space.
Ben Youngs and Farrell, who kicked 18 out of 20 points, thrived on the quick ball, with the latter looking anything but robotic. Lancaster needs to sort out the left wing, where Mike Brown, no matter how game, looks like someone playing out of position, and their kick-chase was not always quick enough but, in the key areas of the game, they were comfortably superior.
None more so than the breakdown, where Launchbury was so influential. The part he played in the buildup to Parling’s try showed how England have evolved in the 12 months, and he was on hand at the very moment Scotland scented a turnover. A team that started the day with 191 caps will clearly have some way to go, but when England brought experienced players off the bench, their performance dipped. Young is bountiful.
England Goode (Strettle 67); Ashton, Barritt, Twelvetrees (Flood 67), Brown; Farrell, B Youngs (Care 57); Marler (Vunipola 57), T Youngs (Hartley 53), Cole (Wilson 74), Launchbury (Lawes 64), Parling, Wood, Robshaw (capt), Morgan (Haskell 45).
Tries Ashton, Twelvetrees, Parling, Care. Cons Farrell 3. Pens Farrell 4.
Scotland Hogg (Evans 78); Maitland, Lamont, Scott, Visser; Jackson, Laidlaw (Pyrgos 73); Grant, Hall (Ford 47), Murray, Gray, Hamilton, Strokosch (Denton 14), Brown (capt), Beattie.
Tries Maitland, Hogg. Con Laidlaw. Pens Laidlaw 2.
Referee Alain Rolland (Ireland).
