The China Mail - Away-day blues: England count cost of Scotland Six Nations defeat

Scotland had lost their previous seven Tests against teams ranked in the world's top 10 but Gregor Townsend's team dominated on Saturday, scoring four tries in a decisive 31-20 victory.

Defeat leaves England still searching for a first major away success under coach Steve Borthwick and with only a handful of chances left for such a win before the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

AFP Sport looks at what went wrong for England in Edinburgh:

- Adapting to adversity -

England conceded two early tries after being reduced to 14 men following a yellow card for Henry Arundell and ended up playing half an hour without the wing when his second yellow became a 20-minute red.

Despite the handicap of being a man down, the very best sides often find a way to win.

But Arundell's prolonged absence badly unsettled England, who struggled to re-adjust their defensive line when a man down.

That scrum-half Ben Spencer and fly-half Fin Smith, both specialists, were on a bench split 6-2 between forwards and backs also exposed England's lack of a utility back such as Marcus Smith capable of covering more than one position.

England now have just three more chances for a major away win before the next World Cup.

The first of those is against France in their Six Nations finale -- a match Borthwick had hoped would see England going for a Grand Slam.

They then travel to South Africa in the new Nations Championship and face Ireland in next year's Six Nations in Dublin -- where England haven't won since 2019.

The tactics of Borthwick's men were also questioned after George Ford's charged down drop-goal attempt paved the way for Scotland centre Huw Jones' second try of the match.

England's revival from 12-0 down early on against New Zealand in an eventual 33-19 win over the All Blacks at Twickenham in November was launched by two drop-goals from fly-half Ford.

But England were 11 points adrift with just 26 minutes remaining when Matt Fagerson read Ford's telegraphed attempt before teeing up Jones to run underneath the posts.

"What were they doing?," lamented former England centre Will Greenwood in his Sunday Telegraph column, with the 2003 World Cup-winner adding: "I love Ford but that was a shocker of a call."

- Five defeats in six to Scotland -

It is almost a rite of passage for a successful England team to first suffer a chastening Calcutta Cup loss at Murrayfield.

In 1990, a side captained by Will Carling lost a Grand Slam decider before going on to dominate European rugby and 10 years later Clive Woodward's nascent England side blew another Grand Slam chance with a 19-13 defeat in the final match in Edinburgh.

But defeat to Scotland is becoming an all too regular occurence for England.

A Dark Blues side so lacklustre in an 18-16 tournament-opening loss to Italy in Rome were transformed on home soil, to mark under-fire coach Gregor Townsend's 100th match in charge with a fifth win in six encounters against England.

"I've been on this journey now for four or five years with this team and I take the last week as a low moment for myself, but I've also had some massive highs, and this is one of them," said Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu.

The challenge for a Scotland side, who've never finished higher than third in the Six Nations era, is to replicate that form elsewhere in the competition -- starting away to strugglers Wales next weekend.

Y.Su--ThChM