Finn Russell gets yellow card for tripping against England

Ultimately it didn’t matter as Scotland won at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years, but referee Andrew Brace was certainly kept busy during the Calcutta Cup match.

It was an intense but ill-disciplined first half at Twickenham as England and Scotland slugged it out. With ten penalties for England and four for the Scots in the first half, there were also two yellow cards. In fact, England finished with 15 penalties given against them.

Billy Vunipola got one yellow card as England racked up the infringements, but with Scotland in the ascendancy, fly-half Finn Russell earnt one for sticking out a leg to try and stop Ben Youngs as the hosts bore down on Scotland’s 22.

You can watch the incident here…

Scotland still went in at half-time leading 8-6, thanks in no small part to a powerful Duhan van der Merwe try, and then they held on to win 11-6 in the end.

Scotland enjoyed the lions share of possession in the first half (with 75% possession then and fnishing the game with around 65%) and enjoyed a slender lead throughout the match.

One interested party for this one was British & Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland who was in attendance for this Calcutta Cup clash.

Perhaps it is testament to the Scottish mentality throughout this match as Finn Russell came back on eight minutes into the second half with his first job to kick a penalty – he made it 11-6 to the visitors and that was that.

Billy Vunipola received his yellow card for a high tackle on that man Russell, with Scotland already enjoying advantage. But referee Brace had already warned England captain Owen Farrell that the penalty count for the hosts was too high.

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