England coach Eddie Jones was at a loss over how their team failed to perform as they were totally outplayed by Scotland and fell to an 11-6 defeat in Saturday’s Six Nations opener.
The fired-up Scots deservedly took the plaudits with their first Twickenham win for 38 years and the scoreboard flattered the beaten holders, who never looked remotely like scoring a try and barely entered the Scots’ 22 all match.
George-born winger Duhan van der Merwe scored the only try of their first away victory in the tie since 1983 and just the fifth occasion in their history.
The hosts conceded 15 penalties to six, missed 27 tackles and failed to make any linebreaks.
A disappointed Jones said after the defeat: “We just couldn’t find a way to get into the game
“On a day like this the setpiece will always be important, the contest in the air will be important, the gainlines will be important, and we couldn’t win any of those areas. The backs in that situation become almost secondary. We just seemed to be off the pace.
“Sometimes you have those days and we had one today. Scotland played very well. They had a particular game plan which they stuck to and executed really well. We’ve got ourselves to blame for the discipline issues.”
France ran out seven-try 50-10 bonus-point victors over Italy in Saturday’s other game, while Wales and Ireland faced off on Sunday night.