England produce epic Six Nations win over Scotland for Calcutta Cup

Borthwick’s side have much to improve still, but brothers held firm in second half to lay down a marker, writes Owen Slot after England’s epic Calcutta Cup victory.

SO there we were, in the bowels of the stadium, us media types trying to make sense of it all, and Ben Curry comes over to talk. He is asked the friendly first question which is: what did you make of the game? And his reply was, “words can’t really describe it at the moment” and then he had another go and said, “it’s what you dream of”.

Sometimes, post-match, players and coaches are told the right thing to say. We’ve all seen that in pretty much every sport that’s ever been on the telly. It seems reasonable to make that point here because, yes, Curry might have been given the right PR line for the occasion, but I am 99 per cent convinced that this was an emotional man talking after one of the most emotional sporting occasions of his career and that he couldn’t have meant those words more if he tried.

Beating Scotland by a single point thanks to a Finn Russell conversion gliding a few inches wide really is the stuff of his dreams.

England produced an epic match to claim the Calcutta Cup. Picture: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

And you have to tuck that away because the impulse of us in the media and, by the sounds of it, the majority in the stands and I guess, then, a large part of a heaving TV audience, is to recognise what England weren’t against Scotland. They weren’t in control for much of the match, they weren’t fun to watch or easy on the eye, they weren’t brave in attack as they had attested to be, they were beaten three tries to one so they weren’t really a team that had earned the victory.

Crucially, and because we tend to observe the narrative arc of international rugby teams in terms of whether or not they are on the up, England weren’t a team that was improving from last week. In some ways, it was a regression.

Yet for Curry, it really was the stuff of dreams.

The regression thing is what is so maddening. This England take two steps forward and then one back, then two back and one forward. Sometimes you think that this is a properly good team in the making - this is what Steve Borthwick was saying earnestly afterwards (though maybe that was a case of the right PR line) - and then you think that he’s not making anything of them at all. Yet, in the complex chaos of international rugby, I believe that you can now see a little of what this England team stand for. You could see it around the 59th minute of the game, a defensive set that I have rewatched over and again.

⌚️ Fin Smith struck the penalty for England at the Allianz to secure the Calcutta Cup victory over Scotland for the first time since 2020 🙌#Breitling#[e-mail]/pU9zmThoDS

— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 22, 2025

It came from a Scotland lineout, proper attacking ball, the scores tied at 10-10, Scotland trying to break the deadlock, throwing everything at England and, with a number of carries, getting to four metres from the tryline.

The England response was really uplifting, at least that is how the crowd responded to it in the stadium. England didn’t just hold out, they were knocking the Scotland players back. They completed 14 tackles, Jamie George was in on three of them. At one point, you had Curry and Ollie Chessum driving Jamie Ritchie two yards backwards. At another point, Scotland had been forced back to the 22. Finally Maro Itoje completed a turnover (lucky to get away with that one) and Twickenham erupted. Maybe that was as loud as it got all day. Big Swing Low.

Again, even on the defence, you can pick away at what England weren’t: they weren’t infallible, they weren’t able to contain Duhan van der Merwe, they weren’t quick to solve their problems on the edges. And Marcus Smith is no one’s idea of a defensive backstop; he simply wasn’t put on the planet for that role.

Yet what they are, what we could see that they were, is a group with genuine bodies-on-the-line honesty.

Curry described it as “like being in a tumble dryer” and then explained that working for each other is “deeper than just the rugby” and that “my personal view on defence is that it’s got to mean more than just tackling”.

Scotland's wing Duhan van der Merwe (2L) was the player of the match. Picture: Glyn KIRK / AFP

What he was talking about is respect and who you are as a man and as a teammate. England attempt to tackle in twos and that, Curry explained, introduces the fear of the shame of failure: “You don’t want to go in half-heartedly because you know your mate’s going in 100 per cent; it’s like guilt. You know he’s flying in, I’m not going to let him down.”

Curry is never more heart-on-sleeve than when he is talking about playing with his twin brother Tom. He says of Tom that “he gets through a tonne of work and it’s a sign not just of a good rugby player but of his character as well. You talk about looking around the circle [the huddle] and looking people in the eyes - I have no doubt no one could question his integrity, his desire and his willingness to put the team above himself. You see that week in, week out and I don’t think there’s anyone better in the world at it.”

There’s a theory, that is starting to gain some ground in the international game too, that the Curry twins elevate their game when they are playing together. Against Scotland, with Ben coming on as a sub and then Tom exiting with a dead leg, they only overlapped for 11 minutes on the field, yet still Ben said that the Tom effect works on him: “I really enjoy it. It gets me going. You know about looking people in the eye, I look him in the eye and I’m like: yes, I want to do this with you.”

The 2025 Calcutta Cup champions! England! 🏆🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿#guinnessm6npic.twitter.com/g5u1HWMq4Z

— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 22, 2025

That thing about respect, bodies on the line and looking your teammate in the eye - that all sounds great and, really, it should be a given in a professional rugby side - but it’s not just a touchy-feely thing. Having the right environment and the right people only goes so far.

Borthwick said after the game that his players are working harder for each other now. That was a strange comment. Oh yes? How much harder? Being Borthwick, he had the stat ready to hand: 18 per cent harder. Running distance covered is 18 per cent up on the autumn.

Back in November, when England took off fast against the All Blacks, the message came on from the coaches: slow down, you can’t sustain it. Well they can now. It’s a straightforward professional fitness and conditioning thing. So England are not just about a look in the eye and recognising a mutual trust. It’s knowing why that trust is there.

As they continue taking two steps forward and one back, and then the other way round, they at least have this defensive foundation. It doesn’t make them a great team, but it means they can build towards being one. For now, they’re not particularly good at winning, but they’re hard to beat. And while that may not be good enough for many, for others, it is the stuff of dreams.

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Originally published as England produce epic Six Nations win over Scotland for Calcutta Cup