Smith has diamonds on the soles of his shoes

However, the young English fly-half and his teammates had to ride out a torrid last act in this Auld Enemy arm-wrestle when a Scottish side that outscored them three tries to one, came within a sliver of an upright of retaining the trophy by scoring a storming touchdown with two minutes left on the clock.
Almost inevitably, with the Scots trailing 16-10, it fell to Duhan van der Merwe to run it in – maintaining a phenomenal strike rate of seven tries against England in the last five encounters.
However, it was a neat inside pass by Tom Jordan which set it up, sending the big bench centre Stafford McDowall ripping up the English middle before being stopped short of the line.
From the recycle, quick hands saw van der Merwe, who had an outstanding match in attack, give Scotland the chance to keep the Calcutta Cup north of the border, but Finn Russell’s conversion from wide out was just shy of the English Fin’s ice-cold precision. The winning penalty was one of a number of decisions that went England’s way when two Scottish forwards were penalised at the ruck for lifting Ben Curry off his feet – and off the ball – as he attempted to win a turn-over.
It was eventually enough for England to claim another one-point win to set next to that against France two weeks ago, but it took every ounce of defensive doggedness and grit in their locker to shut out the Scots. The visitors recycled the ball impressively in search of another opening, until finally, in the second minute of overtime, a phalanx of England players hustled a Scottish maul into touch – and the Red Rose drought was done.
One of the mantras often heard about rugby union is that you get what you deserve on the scoreboard, and when it came to tenacity, and a refusal to take second despite being on the rack for long periods of this Test, only the most curmudgeonly would quibble with the result.
Yet, when it came to attacking flair and precision, especially in the firsthalf, and then again in the last knockings, Scotland were streets ahead of an England attack that often looked clunky and disjointed by comparison.
That the Scots did not get a better return for their elan was down to a combination of an England defence that has become much more hard-working and cohesive, and a Scotland side that lost some of its sharpness and shape in the second half.
One of England’s failings is that their overall kicking game lacks accuracy, with too much of Alex Mitchell’s box-kicking too long to be contestable by the chasers. It also provided the Scots with a handy springboard for their attack, which was also helped by the quick ball provided by a pack which, unlike against Ireland, went toe to toe in most areas with the England forwards.
Jamie Ritchie was a constant bugbear to England at the breakdown, and they were only in deficit at the scrum, where Zander Fagerson will have lost some Lions headway – with England’s Will Stuart and Ellis Genge doing enough to get the bulk of the penalties. It was also the case that England were on the money with the penalties they forced out of the Scots in the second half, after trailing 10-7 at half time.
It is notable that Marcus Smith took back the kicking duties for the short to mid-range kicks, nailing the two penalties either side of the hour that gave them a 13-10 advantage, before handing over to his Northampton namesake for the long-range clutchkick that ultimately separated the two teams.
The game started with a bang, with Scotland scoring a peach of an opening try after just three minutes, with Russell prompting the move from inside his own 22 by passing to van der Merwe.
The Springbok Scot took off like a big scalded cat, beating Lawrence for p...