Luke Cowan-Dickie slap into touch gives Scotland penalty try

England were leading 17-10 when a Finn Russell crossfield kick was put up into the right corner. Going up for the ball was England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and winger Darcy Graham. But with the ball hanging in the air, the England front-rower slapped it into touch, before landing heavily.

After looking at the footage on the big screen, referee Ben O’Keefe awarded Scotland a penalty try and sent the No 2 to the sin-bin.

According to the laws of the game, there are two passages particularly relevant here. Firstly, “A player must not intentionally throw or pass the ball forward.”

Then you come to the line in the laws: “A penalty try is awarded between the goal posts if foul play by the opposing team prevents a probable try from being scored, or scored in a more advantageous position. A player guilty of this must be cautioned and temporarily suspended or sent off. No conversion is attempted.”

With O’Keefe going under the posts, it brought things to 17-17. Scotland would retain the Calcutta Cup, going on to win 20-17 in this Six Nations opener.

There was a sense of scrambling in the build-up to Scotland taking back the lead too.

They put a penalty kick into the corner where England soon had Joe Marler throwing in, in the absence of a hooker. Replacement Jamie George watched on from the sideline as the loosehead threw it to substitute Alex Dombrandt round the front. But it did not go five metres. At the scrum, the referee ruled that England infringed. Finn Russell dispatched the resultant penalty to make it 20-17. Scotland would not relinquish the lead.

Related: Ben White scores on debut in Calcutta Cup

the hosts also led at half-time. England and their pack were on top early on, particularly in the scrum. But the only try of that first half came from replacement nine Ben White, who tracked a moment of brilliant from wing Darcy Graham.

England came back in the second half, with Marcus Smith scoring all of the points (including a try) on the way to England taking the lead, 17-10. But then the game completely swung back in Scotland’s favour with one Cowan-Dickie slap.

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