You can pinpoint the moment Scotland ended England’s winning streak.
The Murrayfield crowd remained jubilant after Huw Jones’ second try after 56 minutes, with Rory Darge sneaking a miss inside his own 22 meters midway through the Flower of Scotland show.
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Cheers erupted, but the national anthem continued unchecked. It was another victorious battle, but the war was won.
There’s nothing too unfortunate about England’s winning streak ending with 13 games to go.
By half-time, the visitors were huge by any measure.
Fourteen points behind on the scoreboard. Alone on the court. Powered by a vibrant Murrayfield, the noise was reduced by hundreds of decibels.
But, at this point, it doesn’t feel insurmountable.
Scotland did most of the tackling, with Finn Russell doing an excellent job of scooping the ball up to Jones for a try in a tight start, showing the nimble feet, sharp hands and game intelligence to make him irresistible.
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His side were utterly incompetent and brutal in their defeat by Italy a week ago. England visited 22m four times in the first 40 minutes and scored 24 points.
But England has created its own predicament.
Henry Arundel was the most famous of them all. The Bath flank was unlucky to pick up a first yellow card for not releasing a tackled player, and then clumsily picked up a second for colliding with Keir Stein in the air.
The fouls reduced England’s score to 14 points in 30 minutes. His absence will only encourage Scotland’s willingness to go wide.
Arundel’s personal mistakes were not unique, however.
Luke Cowan-Dickie’s armless tackle gave Scotland field position and Jamie Ritchie scored the home side’s second try.
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Ellis Genge was asked to do a job that was not his and he fumbled the ball in the backfield for his third try.
Overall, the team’s defense, which had been allowing opponents to move laterally over the past year, was suddenly filled with holes for Scotland to exploit.
Still, all is not lost.
Eliminate those individual mistakes, adjust without the ball, look at Arundel’s sinful period and turn the screws in the chaos, and there’s a narrow theoretical route back into the game.
Winning this award would be the greatest recognition for an upwardly mobile team.
Scotland only showed weakness in the autumn, leading by 21 points against Argentina. England’s bench can use their depth to their advantage.
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The theory is there.
It’s all so brief it looks as if it could be staged in reality.
Two minutes after the restart, Genge converted another Jander Fagerson penalty. George Ford made the score 24-13.
The Scottish front row is once again supported. Another penalty made things less easy for Murrayfield.
It felt like the pressure was growing on the scoreboard in the 53rd minute when Ford got back in the pocket and scored on a lost goal.
But 15 months ago, Ford missed a last-gasp goal in the win over the All Blacks, failing to give himself enough space.
Matt Fagerson, who just came off the bench, is too fast. Charge, try, England’s Grand Slam dream in the dust, Scots dancing in the stands.
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England’s bomb squad showed up, but there was no actual explosion. Scotland pushed them into a corner and ended the game with ease.
Borthwick said Ford’s rushing ball had an impact on the outcome but was far from the only reason for England’s defeat.
“This team has troubled a lot of opponents for a long time,” he said of his team.
“24-13, you concede the ball, 24-16, 24 minutes left, it’s different.
“That 10-point difference was obviously a big moment in the game, but there were a lot of other smaller moments in the game that led to that result.”
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In the build-up to the World Cup, Borthwick’s right-hand man Richard Wigglesworth said that just as England did not deserve all the criticism they received for a poor showing in 2024, the praise they received for a more successful 2025 was probably exaggerated.
Those words seem wise now.
“We have to learn from this and move on,” captain Maro Itoje said.
“We didn’t start well, we weren’t as accurate and precise as we wanted to be, especially in the scrum – all those areas need to be better.
“I think over the last 12 months we’ve been good at riding the wave and finding a way out, but today we weren’t very good at that.”
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These lessons need to be adhered to quickly. Defeat to Ireland next weekend would certainly derail Six Nations title hopes.
Away games against Italy, France and world champions South Africa soon followed.
If England don’t ride the wave, more teams will be chasing them before they know it.
