Few predicted anything other than a landslide victory for England Knights against Scotland at Meggetland yesterday, and the result was as expected as the visitors ran in 11 tries in their 62-24 victory to lift the Alitalia European Cup.
However, Scotland surprised many by scoring 24 points against the best young players in Super League.
No wonder Scotland coach Dave Rotheram was pleased, despite his side conceding 62 points.
"Obviously, I'm not happy with the result but they're a class side," he said. "But I'm delighted with everything else about that performance. Our pack dominated theirs at times, we tried things out and completed our sets and came away with something when we got down their end.
"We deserved the four tries we scored. Some of our lads played themselves in to World Cup contention with that performance."
Scotland went ahead on four minutes when Mitchell Stronger ploughed over beneath the upright, but that triggered a lethal flourish from England as they scored three tries in five minutes through Dan Sarginson, George Burgess and Jodie Broughton, the second two gifted to them by Scottish errors. With Jordan Turner kicking all three conversions, the signs were ominous for Scotland.
But Lee Paterson touched down Ben Fisher's grubber kick to reduce the arrears to 12 points, only for Turner to score in the right corner himself. Ben Hellewell spurned a chance to get Scotland within touching distance at the break with a poor pass to winger David Scott on the whistle.
The Knights made a ferocious start to the second half, scoring two quick tries, through Rhys Evans and Broughton, and after Scotland debutant Brett Phillips had pulled another try back with a strong drive, the English broke loose. Evans scored before a brace from Wigan-bound Scott Taylor and a long-range effort from London Broncos winger Kieran Dixon, which were all converted by Turner. That took the Knights past 60 points with more than 10 minutes left.
But Scotland rallied again, showing guts and ability that bellied their composition. The final scores came from two local products: Edinburgh Eagles' second-rower Craig Borthwick, who had mixed it with some high profile opponents throughout the afternoon, scored a debut try. His fellow Peebles product and Scotland manager George Fairbairn, who lost his record as England's top points scorer to Kevin Sinfield on Saturday, proudly presented Borthwick with his Scotland cap after the game.
Winger David Scott topped off a strong display by converting Borthwick's try, as he had the first three, the son of Stirling showing why he has been in demand recently before plumping to sign for Featherstone Rovers.
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