This is becoming a wonderful habit. Long may it continue. Although it would be nice to back it up against Wales next weekend this time.

Giant South African winger Duhan van der Merwe will be the toast of his adopted country for days to come after his two sensational tries stretched Scotland’s winning streak over England to three matches on the bounce – remarkably, they have won four and drawn one of the last six – but, really, it was a 22-man effort from Gregor Townsend’s heroes.

After waiting 38 years to beat the Auld Enemy on their own patch, Scotland have now done it twice on the trot, and this one is arguably even more impressive than the 2021 triumph because it was achieved in front of a full house at Twickenham, with no Covid restrictions to nullify England’s home advantage. This is only the sixth time they have ever won at RFU HQ.

After a cagey first 15 minutes, Scotland broke the deadlock with the first meaningful attack of the contest, scored off field position secured by good work from Huw Jones to bring Ollie Chessum-Collins in full-flight down, and even better work by Stuart Hogg to get over the ball and win a penalty on the deck.

At the resultant line-out, George Turner sent a long throw over the top to Jamie Ritchie, who fed Finn Russell, who sent Jones through a yawning gap. The centre didn’t make the line this time, but an offload to Kyle Steyn kept that attack going, and when the ball came back right two phases later, Sione Tuipulotu poked an excellent grubber into the in-goal area for Jones to coolly finish off. Russell converted.

England rallied, aided by a tricky bounce of Max Malins’ hack ahead which caught out Russell and pushed Scotland back into a desperate rear-guard effort, and the home pressure finally paid off when Marcus Smith popped a diagonal over the top which found Malins unmarked on the right.

Farrell pulled the conversion to the left of the posts meaning Scotland stayed narrowly ahead, and then came an astonishing intervention from Duhan van der Merwe.

When Steyn collected an England clearance on the right and passed in field to van der Merwe, it looked like nothing much was on, but the big winger had other ideas and set off on a mazy run from five metres inside his own half, shrugging off five English tacklers on his way to the line, including an embarrassingly weak effort right at the end from home No 8 Alex Drombrandt.

A truly great moment, but Russell missed the conversion and England managed to sneak ahead in the final five minutes before the break.

They attacked off turnover ball, pulling Scotland in with several powerful thrusts, before sending possession to the right for Lewis Ludlum to send Malins in for his second with a well-timed pass.

This time Farrell pushed the conversion to the right of the kindling, but England won a penalty from the restart and worked their way back into Scotland’s 22, and when WP Nel was called for coming in at the side, Farrell had no problem guiding home the three points.

England carried their momentum into the start of the second half, aided by a glut of Scotland penalties as the visiting pack struggled to contain the home team’s power at this point, and the hosts stretched further ahead when Ellis Genge muscled over from close range.

But Dombrandt fumbled the restart, handing Scotland an attacking scrum from which Scotland attacked with real ambition, and it took a slice of luck but their ambition was rewarded when Ben White tidied up scrappy ruck ball and pirouetted out of two tackles to score. Russell’s conversion brought it back to a one-point game.

Scotland had England scrambling in defence when Hogg threatened on the right, but his pass back inside was behind Steyn and that opportunity fizzled out.

A penalty conceded by replacement prop Simon Berghan for hands in the ruck right in front of his own posts allowed Farrell to stretch England’s lead back out to four points, with just over 15-minutes to go.

Scotland were still very much in the contest, and Russell almost put Steyn over on the right but his cross-kick had just a bit too much on it.

Play was brought back for an earlier offside penalty, which allowed Russell to reduce the gap once again to a solitary point.

And then came the game’s decisive moment, when Russell first released Steyn on the right touchline, and then fired another devilish flat pass to the left, which opened up all the space van der Merwe he needed.

It was by no means a walk-in, but the giant South African is deadly when given half an inch with just 10 yards to make – and he swatted off white jerseys as if they were flies.

With just four minutes to go, all Scotland needed to do was close the door – which is, of course, much easier said than done.

England spent those tense final few moments camped deep inside the away team’s 22, but England stood strong, and when Jamie Ritchie got over Ben Earl on the deck to earn a penalty which finally secured the win, the stadium erupted as if it was Murrayfield.

England: F Steward; M Malins, J Marchant (O Lawrence 76), O Farrell, O Hassell-Collins (A Watson.b64); M Smith, J van Poortvliet (B Youngs 58); E Genge (M Vunipola 60), J George, K Sinckler (D Cole 60), M Itoje, O Chessum, L Ludlam, B Curry (N Isiekwe 60), A Dombrandt (B Earl 55). 

Scotland: S Hogg ( B Kinghorn, 65); K Steyn, H Jones, S Tuipulotu, D van der Merwe; F Russell, B White (G Horne 69); P Schoeman (J Bhatti 65), G Turner (F Brown 58), W Nel (S Berghan 58), R Gray, G Gilchrist (J Gray 65), J Ritchie, L Crosbie (J Dempsey 58), M Fagerson.

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)

Scorers 

England: Tries: Malins 2, Genge; Con: Farrell; Pen: Farrell 2

Scotland: Tries: Jones, van der Merwe 2, Whuite; Cons: Russell 3; Pen: Russell. 

Attendance: 81,545