The visitors drew first blood in a match that would contain bucket loads of drama when Duhan van der Merwe broke the line, fed Blair Kinghorn who sent Tom Jordan scampering up the left touchline. Jordan’s superb flat ball inside found Ben White, who nabbed a third Calcutta Cup try with a support line so accustomed to the scrum-half’s style of play. Russell missed the extras, but it was a picture-perfect start from the visitors (0-5, 5 mins).

England’s response was telling, Tommy Freeman eventually burrowing over from close range after the pack had used up a number of draining phases on the Scottish line. Fin Smith converted to give the hosts the led for the first time (7-5, 9 mins).

The see-saw nature of this encounter then saw Scotland threaten, Kyle Rowe almost wriggling his way through a sea of white shirts, only for a knock-on by the same player a few phases later to halt progress.

Territorial gains were the order of the next 10 minutes, White and his counterpart Alex Mitchell consistently trading box kicks in a bid to earn precious field position.

Quick as a flash, though, Scotland hit back in not dissimilar fashion to their opener. After Rowe held his pass to Kinghorn, van der Merwe galloped a few yards before feeding Huw Jones, who finished with aplomb from 15 metres as Scotland, despite the missed conversion, wrestled back the lead (10-7, 20 mins).

Any designs England had on another quick reply were stifled by clever Scottish possession, with a number of probing kicks engineered to pin in their opposition. When Scotland did choose to run it, they had a willing aggressor in van der Merwe, who continually sought to get on the ball and who made countless metres to hush the Allianz Stadium to a murmur.

Scotland’s game management was generally excellent, willing to be patient in possession in the hunt for a penalty opportunity or better. Van der Merwe and Kinghorn in particular were in the mood for gobbling up ground as Scotland’s expansive game plan threatened to come good on the entertainment it was delivering.

In one particular act, the full-back and wing dovetailed terrifically up the left touchline, defying the lack of space to once more lay a platform for Scottish attack, only for more excellent English defence to thwart – and they almost made their visitors pay in spectacular style.

An Ollie Lawrence break featured an outrageous offload to Marcus Smith, who careered through the middle of Twickenham right on the stroke of half-time. England looked sure to score only for Lawrence’s next ball to squirm up and over Freeman to end a first have bookended by drama.

Half-time England 7-10 Scotland

The hosts needed to improve after the interval and it was Lawrence again at the centre of their resolve, punching a gap in Scotland’s defence and again almost landing a classy offload, only for a knock-on to quell their bid for early inroads.

But again, Scotland mopped up the pressure and went in search of their own fillip, van der Merwe once more making ground at will up the left touchline, with Jamie Ritchie – who was having a superb game – ably supporting before Maro Itoje drew a knock-on from Zander Fagerson inside the English 22.

England exited well and in no time, the game was being played again at the other end of the Allianz but each time the home side tried to formulate a plan, invariably Ritchie, or fellow flanking pilferer Rory Darge were there to stifle.

Scotland were beginning to leak a few too many penalties and when they were whistled by Pierre Brousset for not rolling away, Marcus Smith landed the half’s first points from 30 metres out to tie the scores (10-10, 55 mins).

Russell thought he was through with a delightful show-and-go but was brought down five metres short and after a couple of probing phases, the chance passed when Itoje then did his best Inspector Gadget impression to scoop the ball back, despite the protestations of the Scottish stand-off.

A review for potential foul play from Rowe on Ollie Chessum for a head collision adjudged that the Scotland winger had fouled but no more than a penalty was warranted.

And another came for an offside moments after, referee Brousset then asking Scotland to keep an eye on their discipline for risk of a yellow card emerging. Smith popped over the goal to give England a three-point advantage (13-10, 66 mins).

An illegal clear-out soon after – Scotland’s eighth penalty concession of the half – allowed Fin Smith to chance his boot from fully 50 metres, the ball sneaking over to extend England’s lead (16-10, 70 mins).

Scotland went once more to the well in the hunt for a match-turning try but in the face of stellar English defence – their tackle count comfortably passing 150 – could not pierce through, Ewan Ashman’s attempted backwards flip pass going straight out a sign of the frustration Scotland were experiencing.

And still, there was a chance, when England transgressed at a line-out to allow Scotland their own throw-in around the half-way line.

Stafford McDowall’s thudding stampede through the centre of the pitch, akin to Sam Johnson’s run in this same fixture in 2019, teed up Russell and Kinghorn who in turn gifted van der Merwe, by his standards, an easy run-in to get to within a point (16-15, 79 mins).

Try as they might, Scotland could not forge that precious opportunity to snatch victory as England won the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2020.

Full-time: England 16-15 Scotland

England: Marcus Smith, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje (captain), Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Tom Willis.

Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Harry Randall, Elliot Daly.

Scotland: Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse), Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan  (all Glasgow Warriors), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby); Finn Russell (Bath Rugby) (co-captain), Ben White (Toulon); Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry (both Edinburgh Rugby), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Jonny Gray (Bordeaux-Bègles), Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie (both Edinburgh Rugby), Rory Darge (co-captain), Jack Dempsey (both Glasgow Warriors).

Replacements: Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Cherry, 54 mins), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) (for Schoeman, 70 mins), Will Hurd (Leicester Tigers) (for Z. Fagerson, 76 mins), Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby) (for Gray, 62 mins), Gregor Brown (Glasgow Warriors) (for Gilchrist, 70 mins), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) (for Dempsey, 54 mins), Jamie Dobie (Glasgow Warriors) (for White, 64 mins), Stafford McDowall (Glasgow Warriors) (for Jones, 64 mins).

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant referees: Andrew Brace (IRFU) and Luc Ramos (FFR)

Television Match Official: Tual Trainini (FFR)

Fair Play Review Officer: Quinton Immelman (SARU)

Guinness Player of the Match: Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland)