England 61-21 Scotland: Jonathan Joseph scores hat-trick as hosts retain Six Nations
By Tony Tighe
Last Updated: 12/03/17 12:09pm
Jonathan Joseph's hat-trick helped England retain their Six Nations title with a game to spare as they crushed Scotland 61-21 at Twickenham.
Eddie Jones' side equalled New Zealand's tier-one record of 18 successive wins as they capitalised on the second-minute sin-binning of Fraser Brown for a dangerous tackle.
England scored 10 points in his absence and led 20-0 after 25 minutes, Joseph twice punishing poor Scottish defending.
They had extended their advantage to 30-7 by the interval, Anthony Watson cancelling out Gordon Reid's try for the visitors, and Joseph completed his hat-trick within three minutes of the restart as the hosts scored 20 points without reply for the second time.
Scotland, who lost Stuart Hogg and his replacement Mark Bennett to injury during the first half, did stop the rot with a Huw Jones double sandwiching a score from replacement Billy Vunipola.
However, England had the final say with Danny Care scoring twice late on, putting the gloss on an eighth win in a row over their old rivals.
Turning point
Brown was yellow-carded after 107 seconds for a dangerous tackle on Elliot Daly; 28 seconds later, Joseph crossed for his first try.
Throw in the loss of Stuart Hogg and his replacement Mark Bennett to injuries and it was a nightmare start from which Scotland could not recover.
The good
England's line speed was excellent while playmakers Owen Farrell and George Ford had a hand in all three first-half tries.
But the star of the show was Joseph, who tormented the Scotland defence to bag his second England hat-trick, and he even turned provider to put Anthony Watson over before half-time.
The bad
Scotland were beasted at the breakdown, their back row finishing a distant second. They struggled to get over the gainlne and and their discipline left a lot to be desired.
Skipper John Barclay was one of the worst offenders. He had a penalty reversed on 56 minutes after getting involved with James Haskell and Maro Itoje on his own tryline, which resulted in a try for Vunipola.
Man of the match
Top tweet
Stat of the match
18: Number of successive victories registered by England. They will set a tier-one record if they beat Ireland next Saturday.
Reaction
England head coach Eddie Jones: "The exciting thing for us is that we're only just starting. We're one year into a four-year project and we're going to get better and better."
Scotland captain John Barclay: "We try to move away from that tag of plucky losers but that wasn't plucky enough. That was useless. That's not us. That's not what we tried to build to."