Finn Russell slotted a penalty eight minutes from time to earn Scotland a narrow 20-17 win over England on Saturday as they took advantage of a penalty try and a yellow card for the visitors to wrestle back control of an intense Six Nations game.
Scotland, 10-6 up at halftime, were 10-17 down when they were awarded a penalty try after England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie batted away a high cross-field pass. He was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes.
It proved the turning-point as with the one-man advantage, Scotland won a late penalty to snatch victory and take the Calcutta Cup for a second successive year.
Ben White scored Scotland's other try while all England's points came from young first-five Marcus Smith, who crossed for a try and was unlucky to end on the losing side.
Meanwhile, Ireland eased past reigning champions Wales 29-7 in their opening game in Dublin, picking up where they left off in November with a comfortable victory.
Ireland looked every inch one of the tournament favourites when they roared out of the blocks but only had a converted Bundee Aki try and a Johnny Sexton penalty to show for it at halftime as they invited the injury-hit visitors into the game.
The hosts quickly saw to that in the second half with two Andrew Conway tries either side of a yellow card for makeshift Wales centre Josh Adams before centre Garry Ringrose clinched a bonus point with try number four on the hour.
A late Taine Basham try ensured the visitors did not add a scoreless outing to an otherwise dismal day. Ireland travel to France next week looking to extend their winning run to 10 games in what is likely to be a far more difficult test.
Reuters
