Hammer of the English is too hot to handle again

THIS fourth English Calcutta Cup defeat in succession confirmed Duhan van der Merwe as the ‘Hammer of the English’. The powerhouse South African-born winger was simply too hot to hold as he roared in for a hat-trick to send the Murrayfield crowd into raptures. 

- NICK CAIN

It took the big winger’s try scoring tally to 26 in his 37 Test appearances for Scotland, and he trumped his two-try savaging of England at Twickenham last year – including his end-toend try of the last Six Nations – with an exhibition of superb finishing.

Van der Merwe’s two first-half tries saw England’s blitz defence come unstuck, giving the home side a 17-13 lead at the interval, and he rounded off his command performance with a third try four minutes into the second half – before handing over the baton to fly-half conjurer Finn Russell.

Scotland’s co-captain has not missed a kick at goal throughout this Six Nations campaign, and he kept another clean sheet here by kicking six out of six attempts. Russell’s deadeye marksmanship left England chasing the game when his conversion of van der Merwe’s last touchdown put Scotland ahead 24-13.

It was fitting that van der Merwe and Russell combined brilliantly for the try just after the break that effectively put Scotland out of England’s reach. They had a Scott Cummings lineout steal and a Cameron Redpath swivel and 20 metre burst into England territory – after a Russell kick had been blocked – to thank for providing them with the launchpad for the strike. Russell took full advantage by delivering a perfect chip-kick into the left tramline, which van der Merwe collected on the bounce to score untouched.

Although a George Ford penalty narrowed the gap to 24-16, Russell was unrelenting, and, as England infringed in their desperation to get back into the match, he kicked two more effortless penalties to give Scotland a comfortable 3016 cushion with 15 minutes remaining.