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Author: AP
The first draw between the sides since 1989 effectively ended the slim hope
England had of winning the tournament but gave last-place Scotland its first
point this season.
Dan Parks struck four penalties and a drop goal for Scotland while Jonny
Wilkinson kicked three penalties for England before going off hurt. His
replacement, Toby Flood, kicked England’s remaining points with two more
penalties.
Flood had a chance to snatch victory after his forwards engineered a drop goal
opening in the last move of the match, but his kick was charged down.
The scrappiness of an intense game was typified by the fact that Scotland’s
two best try-scoring opportunities came from mistakes: Both were set up by
moves that started with second-half penalty attempts hitting the same
right-hand post.
England had plenty of time to clear the first but scrumhalf Danny Care sliced
his clearing kick straight into touch close to the 22. Scotland set up an
attacking platform from the ensuing lineout, and back-rower Kelly Brown was
left one-on-one with wing Ugo Monye in a race for the corner, but they
clashed heads in the tackle and both went off injured.
Having failed to chase that first kick, Parks’ Scotland teammates charged in
when the next penalty hit the post and were rewarded with possession.
England just managed to hold out in front of the posts but only at the
expense of a penalty, which Parks kicked for 15-15.
England did show flashes of attacking intent, especially after Flood, Ben
Foden and Ben Youngs all went on as replacements, but never led until the
50th and never looked likely to score a try.
Flood still had two chances to win the match late on. He hit the post with a
47-meter (yard) penalty before his charged-down drop goal.
But England was lucky to have trailed only 9-6 at the end of an attritional
first 40 minutes.
Scotland had 66 percent of first-half possession and was undone only by a
failure to find the final pass at the end of its multiphase moves, while
England missed several tackles and again gave away needless penalties.
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