SCOTLAND captain Stuart McInally admitted he did not know how to feel at Twickenham last night after inspiring the astonishing comeback that allowed his side to retain the Calcutta Cup, but saw them denied a momentous victory as England scored in injury time to salvage a 38-38 draw
It was Scotland’s highest ever tally against England, surpassing the 33 scored in their 1986 win at Murrayfield and it was the first time they had retained the Calcutta Cup since 1984.
However, that late George Ford score, which rounded off an 11-try epic, left the captain, whose late first half try had given his side some hope after they had fallen 31 points behind in less than half an hour, experiencing mixed emotions.
“It's a strange one,” he said.
“We were within a minute and a half you dare to dream that we may have done it and then they scored a try, but we are really proud of that second half as we are disappointed with the first.
READ MORE: Scotland draw with England after incredible comeback
“It's great to retain the Calcutta Cup and I won’t lie, it’s a good feeling even though it was a draw. It was a game we could have won at the end but the overriding emotion is that we are pleased.”
Man-of-the-match Finn Russell went further in claiming to be devastated by the failure to see the match out after two tries from Darcy Graham and three more from Magnus Bradbury, Sam Johnson and the play-maker himself had put them in front in the dying stages.
“I'm gutted,” he said.
“At half-time everyone would have written Scotland off. For us to come out and have a second half like that shows the character the boys have. I'm just so disappointed we didn't manage to finish it off at the end.”
Russell also revealed that he had exchanged words with coach Gregor Townsend at the interval as they tried to work out what was going wrong.
“I actually had an argument with Gregor at half-time, he was telling us to kick and I said ‘every time we kick they run it back at us and cut it open,’” he explained.
“We were tackling them behind the gainline, so we had to fix that.
READ MORE: Is Steyn selection a black mark for Scottish rugby administrators?
"The first half we got caught off guard then in the second half we had nothing to lose and we played our rugby. We played good Scottish rugby the second half.
"There were a lot of injuries but the boys who have filled in have been outstanding. The whole campaign has been frustrating. We've had close games and not played at our best sometimes, but it's a good way to finish with the Calcutta Cup back in Scotland."
Townsend meanwhile noted that while a drawn match could not be a career highlight, the overall experience was of a different order to anything previous.
“It’s not as good as last year’s win, but it was a unique game,” he said.
“I have never been involved in a game like that as a player or a coach.
“Not many games of rugby end up being 31-0, 38-31 and then end up 38-38, especially when you consider the team we were up against. It’s the most unusual game I have been involved in.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here