England finished their Six Nations campaign by regaining the Calcutta Cup with a 26-12 win over Scotland at Twickenham here on Saturday.
Victory meant England had won three of their matches but, having turned round 15-3 at half-time, they were dragged into a dogfight by the Scots and never repeated the sparkling form they'd showed in a 34-10 win over France at Twickenham last weekend.
Ugo Monye and Riki Flutey scored England's first two tries, both in the opening period, before replacement back Mathew Tait added a third two minutes from time.
Toby Flood kicked eight points with replacement scrum-half Danny Care adding a drop-goal which nudged England two scores in front with eight minutes left.
For Scotland this loss was their fourth in five matches this Championship, their only win coming against fellow strugglers Italy.
A defeat which was bound to lead to renewed speculation about the future of coach Frank Hadden also left Scotland still searching for their first Twickenham triumph since 1983.
Scotland dominated the first 15 minutes and took the lead when full-back Chris Paterson made it 14 out of 14 successful goalkicks this Six Nations with an eighth minute penalty after Harry Ellis, England's scrum-half, was caught on the wrongside.
Minutes later Scotland almost scored the match's first try when Thom Evans burst clear down the blindside only for Monye to just do enough to force him into touch when the left wing was in sight of the line.
England then lost Ellis with what appeared to be a serious head injury after he was seemingly knocked out cold before hitting the turf after his head hit the hip of Simon Danielli as he tried to tackle the Scotland right wing.
Ellis required several minutes of treatment before he was carried off on a stretcher.
England, with outside-half Toby Flood increasingly influential and Tom Croft an athletic presence at the lineout, were starting to get back into the match.
In the 23rd minute they took the lead. The ball was worked from right to left and Monye, missed by Paterson, went in at the corner with Max Evans, Thom's brother, unable to stop the Harlequins flyer.
Flood missed the difficult conversion but England were 5-3 in front.
England eventually created enough space for New Zealand born centre Flutey to score his third try in two matches despite Paterson's last-ditch tackle. Flood added the extras to make it 12-3.
Scotland, who've had problems scoring tries throughout this tournament, missed a glorious chance in the 35th minute when scrum-half Mike Blair surged into England's 22.
But the Scotland captain failed to see Danielli in support and was tackled by Delon Armitage before he could get his pass away.
England were rightly denied another try when Paterson got his leg between the ball and the turf after replacement prop Julian White had surged forward after more persistent pressure.
However, they did score again before half-time through a Flood penalty and the Leicester stand-off's third successful goalkick early in the second-half put England 18-3 in front.
Paterson cut the deficit with a 40m penalty before long-distance specialist Phil Godman kept Scotland in the game with an effort from half-way.
The second-half became a largely scrappy affair with both sides struggling for control.
But when England, who'd seen Flood miss a penalty, gifted Paterson a chance in front of the posts the score became 18-12 and a match the home side had had in their grasp was back in the balance.
Then came Care's drop-goal before Tait's try set the seal on a match which ended with Scotland replacement Hugo Southwell being stretchered off after he suffered a head knock while trying to tackle Delon Armitage in the build-up to Tait's try.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
