‘Maradona’ Finn Russell takes Murrayfield to place no Six Nations venue can match
Let me tell not just about Scotland or England, but rather the tournament itself, the one that comes round at this bleak time of year, during the season of rain and cold, when the sun is on annual leave. This is the moment we turn to the Six Nations Championship and ask it to please take us into spring.
A little after midday on Saturday, two Scots, Craig Carson and his friend, Andy Overton, turned up in Charlotte Square, close to the heart of downtown Edinburgh. Devotees, you’d call them. They come here, I’m guessing, because they know the routine. Scotland’s team stay at the Kimpton Hotel on the square and about four hours before kick-off the players leave the hotel, cross the road to the small private park with its neatly cut grass and stretch their legs.
Craig and Andy stand close to the wrought iron railing that surrounds the park and though there isn’t much to see, they watch like hawks as Ben White spins a pass to Finn Russell while big forwards away to their left do some gentle stretching. Plenty of people have now gathered, though their silent observance is more respectful than enthusiastic. The Scots are no longer sure about this team.
I start a conversation with Craig and Andy.
“Are you hopeful?” I ask.
“Not at all,” Craig says, matter-of-factly.
“Why so pessimistic?”
“England are obviously on a bit of a resurgence. They’ve got a very good squad. They have a good identity and the Scotland team, after last week, have lost their identity. I was saying to somebody yesterday that this feels like a Scotland v England game from 15 years ago, before Townsend came on the scene. Back then there was never a strong chance of us winning.”
Townsend was on a slippery slope with our writer’s interlocutors pre-game but will be a more popular figure now
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Ah, Gregor Townsend, the man with a smile so understated it is made for this time of year. As a coach, he has made it his life’s work to deliver England’s head on a plate to his people. Now, after an unforeseen loss against Italy, rebellion is in the air. It is Townsend’s own head the people want. As gently as I can, I ask Craig and Andy if they feel the head coach should be beheaded.
As Craig considers how best to answer, Andy draws his sword.
“Gregor should have gone already,” he says. I want to quote Oliver Cromwell to him — “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken” — but I don’t.
Having weighed things up, Craig offers his tuppence worth. “Gregor has improved the performance of the team quite markedly. But we were talking about the selection for today, to persevere with the back three who played last week after they were found wanting is almost, well there’s a degree of stubbornness in terms of team selection, ‘I am the coach, I will select the team, I am not listening to the noise.’”
Noise that Andy is keen to increase. “I think he’s been there too long. His time’s done. There are very few coaches at this level that last this long in any sport, never mind rugby. I think there’s a shelf life and he’s past it. Everyone knows it, but no one has got the cojones to grasp the nettle. Probably there’s an obvious route out, in terms of a nice deal to be done with Newcastle, if reports are true. I think that would work for everybody but nobody seems willing to move forward.
“The frustrating thing is that we’re 18 months out from the World Cup. If we’re going to do something, it must be now. There’s no point in waiting until the autumn when whoever comes in has less time. I contemplated not coming to today’s game but I go to every game.”
The expectant hordes await the Scotland team bus, knowing England were considerable favourites
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And still Craig and Andy kept watching as the Scotland players did their walk-throughs. Like the team, the two boys eventually set out, for the stadium. The team believe. Craig, Andy and many other Scots don’t. That’s where things were at before the teams entered the arena on Saturday; England on the rise, Scotland at odds with itself.
So how did it unfold the way that it did?
At Murrayfield, especially when England are the opponents, the story begins with the lone piper standing high on the roof of the stadium, introducing Flower of Scotland, then the Police Scotland Fife Pipe Band and the crowd join in. After the first verse the Pipe Band stop playing, handing the anthem over to the people. The Murrayfield faithful ups the volume and if you’ve got a still functioning central nervous system, the hairs stand on the back of your neck. This precise moment of pre-match ritual supersedes anything you hear at Twickenham, Cardiff, Dublin or Paris.
“Those days are past now/And in the past they must remain/But we can still rise now/And be the nation again/That stood against him/Proud Edward’s army/And sent him homeward/Tae think again.”
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The words can make you cry and laugh at the same time. They first speak of closure, leaving conflict in the past, where it must remain. Then they’re rising again, renewing hostilities. The good old Scots. What exactly is it that you want, guys? Not peace, that’s for sure. Today’s warriors come in dark blue jerseys and with dark intent. No two lines of any anthem at any sports event resonate quite like: “And sent him homeward/Tae think again.”
For this is precisely what the Scots did to Steve Borthwick’s team. You may not be the team you think you are. You believed you had an excellent midfield but ours was better. You thought your back three would give you an advantage, especially in the air. Ours was much better. You imagined your No10 would control the game. Ours was the one who won the game. You thought you could handle anything that we might throw at you. You couldn’t.
So, think again.
Russell again showed that, at his best, he remains a cut above any other fly half in the tournament
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That England had a potential problem was apparent from the cameo of action that ended with Huw Jones’s try in the tenth minute. The starting point was a small, unremarkable kicking joust; Russell long to Freddie Steward, the England full back long back to Russell, another long kick back to George Ford, who kicked it back to Russell. That was when Scotland’s No10 chose to try something.
That is to say he feigned to kick but instead waltzed past Steward’s tackle, linked with Sione Tuipulotu and suddenly Scotland were going forward. Their reward for holding on to the ball was a converted try and the sin-bin for England’s left wing, Henry Arundell. Russell’s contribution was pivotal. Not only had he started it, but his tip-on pass to Jones for the try was a thing of beauty.
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Against a normal player, Tom Roebuck’s defensive read would have been lauded. He lined up Russell, assuming he would catch the ball and, had he done so, Roebuck would have buried the player and the ball. That would have been the end of it. Russell saw him coming, stretched just his right arm into the air and then like a concert pianist playing a tune on a rugby ball, he fingered it on to Jones. Not just that, he then adroitly side-stepped Roebuck, just in case the England wing was thinking of still making the tackle.
At that moment a few England players would have wondered if Russell was going to have one of those days. Those times when he is a cut above every fly half in this championship. These performances don’t come as often as they should but when they do, they are to be savoured. It is his pace and the accuracy of his passing, the fearlessness in his ambition and the sheer bloody-minded nature of his confidence. On his best form, there’s no one in the world you’d rather watch in the No10 jersey.
At 17-7, England weren’t out of it. They then got a kickable penalty that they decided to kick, 17-10, 25 minutes in and at that point many were thinking: “This is still England’s. They will outlast the Scots.” Then Russell did his thing, again. Got a ball in midfield going left, instinctively knew left was no good and cut back to his right, getting past Guy Pepper’s attempted tackle, then Sam Underwood’s before kicking cleverly over Ford as Luke Cowan-Dickie eventually took him down.
Of course that kick should have been tidied up by Ellis Genge but props aren’t always going to be flawless in these situations. The ball bounced off his chest and White will never again be as lucky on a rugby pitch. Seventeen-ten became 24-10. There’s another important point here: Russell landed four from four conversations. In the euphoria of a try being scored we often undervalue the importance of the extra two.
Russell chips through before being brought down by Cowan-Dickie …
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… and with Genge unable to gather cleanly, Scotland had their third try
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That try changed the tone of England’s performance. At 17-7 down, they were happy to take the three points from a kickable penalty. At 24-10, 31 minutes into the game, England got a penalty close to the posts. A guaranteed three points. They went for the corner. The dial had moved from calmness to slight desperation.
Nothing came from the lineout except that England’s desperation was no longer slight.
A terrific Test match was decided at the end of a long sequence of England pressure in the 53rd minute. By then, England had tagged on another penalty goal and cut the deficit to 11, 24-13. They furiously sought the try that would get them back within one score. They went right, then left, back again, eight, nine, ten, 11 phases, but somehow Scotland’s tackling was more impactful than England’s carries; Pierre Schoeman on Ollie Chessum, Rory Darge on Genge, Darcy Graham on Steward.
Graham, diminutive for a modern wing, puts in a big hit on Steward …
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… while Schoeman epitomised Scottish dominance by stopping Chessum in his tracks
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England were ten yards from the line when their attack just ran out of ideas, or energy, or both. On the tenth phase Ford needed to clear a ruck after Chessum’s carry and precisely 11 seconds after his involvement in the ruck, Ford was standing back in the pocket, or sort of standing in the pocket because it wasn’t that organised. The drop-goal attempt came after everything else had failed.
Alex Mitchell’s pass was marginally high. Not deep enough in the pocket, Ford’s reaction was marginally slow and there was Matt Fagerson steaming up to block the kick down. What happened next will be what Jones tells his grandkids 30 or 40 years from now. Murrayfield erupted and England’s players barely had the strength, not to say the enthusiasm, for the long walk back to their goalline.
In that moment, the contest ended.
Fagerson’s charge-down led to Jones’s second try and Scotland’s fourth, ending the game as a contest
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After the game I encountered three kilted Scotland fans loitering without intent at Murrayfield, just reluctant to leave the stadium. The brothers, David and Michael Carlin, and their friend, Paul Marshall.
“Today was the best, most enjoyable victory ever over England because we expected nothing. Today’s performance was unbelievable,” said David.
“Why does the team play so well against England and underperform in so many other games?” I asked.
“It’s the old rivalry. The England game takes us to another level,” said Paul. “A home game against England, it’s 100 decibels louder than everyone else. I can’t go home from a Scotland v England game without a sore throat.”
I mention Russell’s contribution.
“He’s the new Maradona,” said David. “That flicked pass. It was the ‘Hand of God’.”
Exactly 40 years after the original, Scotland offers us rugby’s Maradona. Well, you’ve got to hand it to the No10. What a tournament.
