England just keep wheels on

RUGBY/England 22 Scotland 16:BAD SIDES do not win Six Nations titles so we can only assume England suffered an unfortunate attack of stage fright. They will still travel to Dublin this week chasing a first Grand Slam for eight years but this was a stuttering display of King's Speech proportions.

Martin Johnson will far prefer to study the championship table than the match tape. After four wins out of four, with a points difference of +42 compared with their nearest challengers Wales, his team need only a draw at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday to guarantee their first title since 2003. To stop them the Welsh must win big in France and hope Ireland do them a spectacular favour. It is, in short, England’s championship to lose.

At least Johnson will no longer have to do battle with complacency. “The guys are pretty flat which is not a bad place to be after you’ve won four,” said Johnson. “I’m happier in a way to be going to Dublin having played like that rather than scoring a load of points.”

There is no danger, either way, of many odes being written to the beauty of this particular England performance. Nor does the outlook look bright for Mike Tindall, who suffered an ankle injury and did not reappear for the second half. The captain looks unlikely to feature in Dublin and England will probably have to revert to their third-choice captain, Nick Easter, who took over in the second half.

England created several chances but Scotland competed well at the rucks and defended tenaciously. Without another Tigger-like display of exuberance from James Haskell in the English backrow it could have been very different.

Scotland, despite a wobbly lineout, were still on level terms at half-time thanks to two Chris Paterson penalties and a Ruaridh Jackson drop goal, Max Evans denied England when he intercepted what would have been a try-scoring pass from Nick Easter.

The loss of Tindall also tested England’s resourcefulness in an injury-strewn game in which Scotland’s number eight Kelly Brown was carried off early in the second half after a nasty blow to the head. The French referee Romain Poite was another who failed to last the course, straining a calf muscle which interrupted one of Scotland’s more promising attacks.

Even the harsh 58th-minute sin- binning of John Barclay and Toby Flood’s subsequent penalty failed to soothe English nerves, a brilliant try-saving tackle by Paterson on Ben Foden in the left corner a symbol of Scotland’s defiant mood. It also highlighted England’s over-eager wastefulness in the Scottish half, Ben Youngs throwing a loose pass out to Tom Palmer which the lock could not cling on to.

Could the Scots take advantage? They needed Barclay back on the field but, with the flanker poised to return, England finally struck in the 67th minute. There was more than a hint of a forward pass about the offload which Mark Cueto shipped on to the surging Tom Croft.

There was absolutely no doubt about replacement outhalf Jonny Wilkinson’s soaring conversion, nor the late penalty which made the outcome safe after different-ball-gate, with a neat chip and catch, had dragged Scotland back into the contest with seven minutes remaining.

The Scots may still not have won on this ground since 1983 but this was a far cry from the ritual floggings of recent times. The Princess Royal, who presented the Calcutta Cup to her soon-to-be son-in-law Tindall, has known a few dark tartan days but never one in which a fox has run across the field during the national anthems. The poor animal managed to find an escape route in the end, as did England. They will have to play considerably better than this, though, to keep Ireland’s frustrated hounds at bay.

ENGLAND: Foden; Ashton, Tindall, Hape, Cueto; Flood, Youngs; Corbisiero, Hartley, Cole, Deacon, Palmer, Wood, Haskell, Easter. Replacements: Banahan for Tindall (41), Wilkinson for Flood (66), Care for Youngs (55), Thompson for Hartley (66), Doran-Jones for Cole (75), Shaw for Deacon (66), Croft for Wood (66).

SCOTLAND: Paterson; Danielli, Ansbro, S Lamont, Evans; Jackson, R Lawson; Jacobsen, Ford, Low, Gray, Kellock, Hines, Barclay, Brown. Replacements: Parks for Jackson (55), Blair for Lawson (55), S Lawson for Ford (66), Cross for Low (53), Strokosch for Hines (68), Vernon for Brown (43). Not used: De Luca. Sin bin: Barclay (57).

Referee: Romain Poite (France).