Immortality Beckons for England's History Men

JONATHAN Joseph scored a scintillating hat-trick of tries to spearhead an England win which left Scotland’s hopes of a Triple Crown spread-eagled as the home side hit the jackpot.

- Nick Cain

Eddie Jones’ men not only retained the Championship, winning the 2017 Six Nations outright, but they did it with a record Calcutta Cup victory, scoring seven tries in the process.

The records kept ticking over, as they also equalled New Zealand’s record haul of 18 consecutive wins, and will stretch it to 19 if they can beat Ireland in Dublin on Saturday to claim a second consecutive Grand Slam.

A mere footnote is that this win over the Scots was England’s second highest score in any Championship match.

If that roll call requires a pause for breath, it was more than England allowed the Scots. This was the performance England had been promising, and they delivered it with a blistering start which left the visitors shell-shocked, and was in stark contrast to the meandering path they had taken in their three previous matches in the tournament.

If Joseph was the executioner-in-chief the Scots did themselves no favours when Fraser Brown was sin-binned in the opening minute for a dump-tackle on Elliot Daly. The Scottish hooker was fortunate that it was not red given that he upended Daly and drove him into the turf despite the wing having already sent Maro Itoje galloping down the touchline.

Daly went of for a head injury check, and although he came back briefly he was soon replaced permanently by Anthony Watson

With Scotland a man down the home side were ruthless in their execution as they went on the attack from the penalty kick to touch. From the line-out the ball was whipped to George Ford, and when the fly-half ’s pass found Joseph it was as if the Scots’ midfield backs had trodden in quicksand.