Eddie Jones refused to blame Luke Cowan-Dickie for a painful opening Six Nations defeat as England suffered a second successive loss to Scotland for the first time in 38 years. The visitors had transformed a 10-6 half-time deficit into a 17-10 lead with 15 minutes left at Murrayfield after two penalties and a try from the fly-half Marcus Smith but the momentum swung decisively in the 66th minute when Scotland stand-off Finn Russell launched a crossfield kick towards wing Darcy Graham.
The airborne Cowan-Dickie patted it forward with both hands into touch and Ben O’Keeffe, the New Zealander referee, ruled the England hooker’s act was deliberate and awarded a penalty try, with the resultant yellow card leaving the visitors a man down at a critical juncture.
“That happens in the moment,” Jones said. “He played exceptionally well for us and he is very disappointed but all the boys are supporting him. We don’t apportion any blame to Luke – the referee adjudged it was a yellow card and we have to get on with it.
“We had opportunities to kick on, but we just weren’t clinical enough. We are massively disappointed we lost and Scotland deserved to win. I thought we dominated lots of the game but didn’t get points out of the domination. Rugby is a simple game: when you dominate, you have to get the points.”
Jones also defended his decision to replace Smith with George Ford immediately after the youngster had put England seven points clear on the scoreboard. “It’s a 23-man game, mate,” he said. “We felt George could come on and do a job for us in the last 20 minutes.
“It’s a tough one for us. For a young team I thought we fought well and played well; we just didn’t get the result. Last time against South Africa [in November], we got the penalty at the end – this time they got it. We just have to go to Italy next week and win now.”
The game ended with a sequence of four reset England scrums with the clock deep in the red. Tom Curry, the captain, said “it felt like we had domination” but no penalty was forthcoming and Gregor Townsend admitted his heart-rate was “the highest it had been throughout the whole game”. “I’m glad it wasn’t decided by a scrum decision and we had to defend their attack,” the Scotland coach said. “Fortunately we got the ball back.
“This fixture means a lot to us and means a lot to our people. It will make everyone really happy for maybe 365 days, but certainly the next few days. That is a strong England side. The way they attacked and with the power of their pack, they will cause some damage to teams in this competition.”
Townsend praised his side’s resilience in coming back from a 17-10 deficit to earn their third win over England in five years. “We didn’t start the second half well but in the last 20 minutes we played really well and got our attack going in difficult conditions.
“I am really pleased with the character, the belief, the effort and the skill to find ways of creating tries and scoring points. We were not at our best but our defence was outstanding.”
Scotland will now head to Cardiff next Saturday aiming for a first win in the Welsh capital for 20 years, before hosting France, the favourites, in their third game on 26 February.
“Belief is a massive weapon,” Townsend said. “We know we are going to have some really tough challenges, especially in our next two games. We haven’t won in Cardiff for a long while but we know we can play better. If we want to deliver something special, we have to play well next week.”
The one downside was the sight of Jamie Ritchie being carted off on the hour with an injury to his groin area. “He is a in a bit of pain and I wouldn’t expect him to be available next week,” Townsend added.
