England scrum half Alex Mitchell has defended the decision of George Ford to go for a drop goal in a costly moment for the visitors in the Calcutta Cup.
Ford’s effort was blocked by Matt Fagerson, who subsequently picked up the pieces and sent Huw Jones running away for a crucial Scotland score.
England had trailed by 11 points as their fly half went back into the pocket in an attempt to narrow the gap, and a 10-point swing ultimately left them with far too much to do.
Experienced No 10 Ford has made a habit of dropping goals in some of England’s biggest recent wins, including twice against New Zealand in November.
Mitchell, his half-back partner, believes the 32-year-old made an understandable choice with England struggling to penetrate the Scottish defence in the home 22, even if it went awry.
“I think it’s always a call we look for in the 22, in the red zone especially,” he explained. “[Scotland were] slowing the ball down, they did a fantastic job in that area, we couldn’t get the speed of bal. A lot of the time the defence is on top.
“it’s definitely a tactic to go to, drop it in the pocket and go into the drop goal or go into a kick in the air. But today it just didn’t go our way. That’s obviously frustrating. [Ford] is normally fantastic at that. But today it just didn’t work out.”
Defeat in Edinburgh ended a run of 12 consecutive wins for Steve Borthwick’s side as their Six Nations title hopes took a major blow.
England must still visit Paris on the final weekend for a meeting with tournament favourites France, but first will focus on a meeting with Ireland in round three at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.
Andy Farrell’s men struggled for large periods of their win over Italy on Saturday afternoon, but Borthwick is expecting another tough Test next weekend.
“Ireland are an incredible team,” Borthwick said. “They’ve got such enormous amounts of talent.
“How many starting British and Irish Lions they have on their team? And the whole British and Irish Lions coaching team. They play together so often, given the Leinster influence and only coming from a limited number of teams. They’re a very good team. They’ve been at the top of the world rankings for a long period of time.”
Full-back George Furbank could come into contention for selection having been restored to Borthwick’s squad along with prop Vilikesa Sela. The pair spent last week in rehabliitation.
