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Rugby

16th Mar 2019

Game of Six Nations sees England blow an almighty lead

SportsJOE

31-0… and you f**ked it up.

Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup after the game of the tournament ended in simply spectacular fashion.

29 minutes in, England had already bagged a bonus point as they raced into a seemingly insurmountable lead having gone four converted tries and a penalty ahead.

50 minutes later, Scotland were ahead when Sam Johnstone made fools of the England rearguard, rinsing two with his footwork and bulldozing another two the ground as he went over beneath the posts.

But, as good as it would’ve been – especially to see Eddie Jones’ face at the end of it all – Scotland couldn’t hold on and England’s bacon was saved with the last attack of the game.

From 31 down, they drew the game and kept hold of the Calcutta Cup because of their win against England in last year’s Six Nations and Jones had to face up to another bad day at the office.

England came out and cracked open the champagne rugby on the visitors. Before they were even finished analysing the Ireland game on Virgin Media Sport, they had raced into a 21-0 lead and the exhilarating moments kept coming as the Scots faced pure terror in London.

But Jones’ men, who had nothing to play for but pride and the Calcutta Cup after Wales destroyed Ireland, took the pressure off and perhaps thought they were safe enough to do so having gone 31-0 up.

Then, Scotland fought back.

As it was, the sides finished level, England finished second and Ireland have to live with the fact that, had they beaten Wales – although they were nowhere near doing so – they would have won the tournament thanks to Scotland’s revival.