Smith has diamonds on the soles of his shoes

FIN Smith confirmed that he is a big match player to the soles of his boots when he banged over the 50m penalty ten minutes from time which eventually wrestled the Calcutta Cup from Scotland’s grip for the first time in four years.

- NICK CAIN

However, the young English fly-half and his teammates had to ride out a torrid last act in this Auld Enemy arm-wrestle when a Scottish side that outscored them three tries to one, came within a sliver of an upright of retaining the trophy by scoring a storming touchdown with two minutes left on the clock.

Almost inevitably, with the Scots trailing 16-10, it fell to Duhan van der Merwe to run it in – maintaining a phenomenal strike rate of seven tries against England in the last five encounters.

However, it was a neat inside pass by Tom Jordan which set it up, sending the big bench centre Stafford McDowall ripping up the English middle before being stopped short of the line.

From the recycle, quick hands saw van der Merwe, who had an outstanding match in attack, give Scotland the chance to keep the Calcutta Cup north of the border, but Finn Russell’s conversion from wide out was just shy of the English Fin’s ice-cold precision. The winning penalty was one of a number of decisions that went England’s way when two Scottish forwards were penalised at the ruck for lifting Ben Curry off his feet – and off the ball – as he attempted to win a turn-over.

It was eventually enough for England to claim another one-point win to set next to that against France two weeks ago, but it took every ounce of defensive doggedness and grit in their locker to shut out the Scots. The visitors recycled the ball impressively in search of another opening, until finally, in the second minute of overtime, a phalanx of England players hustled a Scottish maul into touch – and the Red Rose drought was done.