Furthermore, the Scottish forwards, though as badly beaten as ever on a.tally-of heels, were a long way from being failures on that account. In the first place, their own shoving was enough to keep the English heeling slow, and that, combined swith the almost staggering futility of the English attack in midfield, gave Scotland their chance. In the lines-out, too, the Scottish forwards were rather the better, and, when they Gid heel from a scrummage, both the heel and the subsequent running made Scotland look an infinitely more dangerous combination than the auld enemy floundering in their heavy armour in the bogs of the Bannock. Admittedly, the effort. of the English pack was tremendous and sustained, but there were no Wakefields or Tom Voyces in it to make the effort effective in the loose, The Scottish pack did just enough to hold them and, every now and then, as in the breakaway of W. B. Young, P.L. Duff, and W. H. Crawford that led up to a grand try by Dick, achieved a lot more in substance than the Englishmen. Nor let one forget that Crawford was not far behind Parker as a place-kicker, though he could not convert one of his side's five tries. Four of the tries were scored in the face of a stiff breeze and all were touched down wide out, like the one English try.
The match was played in brilliant sunshine, and the crowd must have been the largest that ever assembled at Twickenham. The whole made a glorious sight, and the singing, of "God Save the King" would not have disgraced a Welsh crowd. The game itself was a grand one to watch, for, in spite of the poorness of the English back-play, the scoring went neck and neck until the closing minutes. Then one last superb piece of running by Shaw settled the issue. It was a great joy to witness the complete vindication of Shaw as a standoff half-back of exceptional pace with, moreover, the football sense to make the pace worth while. He had too long been the victim of bad luck and Doubting Thomases, With the Wind England started with the wind and the sun—the latter only to some extent—at their backs, and their repeated successes in getting the ball should have brought them a useful lead at half-time. Instead, they had their goal-line crossed four times and themselves crossed. Scotland's only Once by the skin of their teeth, But for two perfect penalty kicks by Parker the side with most of the ball and every other advantage must have looked a beaten one before their turn came to face the natural handicaps. The pace of everything Lut the English passing was remarkable to the point of confusion, It spoke me" {or the ability of a reforce new to international Rugby that he retained so close a grip upon the manifold details of the play.
A good deal of long kicking, which did not always send the ball into touch, and the inevitable punt ahead added to the uncertainties of the first 10 minutes. Alreaiy one had seen enough of the Scottish backs to realize that, given a rather better chance by their forwards, they would be very hard to hold indeed. Then, suddenly, Shaw tested Parker with a kick ahead and the latter was beaten by an awkward bounce. Shaw was on him in a flash, kicked the ball out of his hands as Parker tried to recover, and dribbled away down the right touch-line. Several Scottish forwards followed up and so did the new right wing. W. N. Renwick. When Shaw kicked the ball towards them, Renwick picked up and dived over for a try that produced such a volume of sound that for a moment one imagined it was Murrayfield instead of Twickenham. The crowd, surely, must have been nearly half and half. Crawford failed with a difficult kick at goal, and inside the next couple of minutes Parker had defied the unpleasant omen of a placed ball rolled over by the wind and landed three penalty points for England from about 30 yards out at angle.
Five minutes later, from rather longer range, Parker kicked another penalty goal, but England's lead, one felt, was largely spurious, not that one questioned the punishment of scrummage infringements. England certainly were still getting most of the ball and doing their share of the attacking, but the passing was ragged and the running in midfield so slow that Reynolds quite early in the game began to think more of kicking than running. J. L. Giles once or twice fooled the Scottish spoilers, who lay dangerously near off-side most of the time, but nothing came of his slips-away. That Scotland, on the other hand, were full of a firm belief in themselves was shown when Forrest fielded a cross-kick by H. S. Sever in his "25" and yet got in a run. Eventually, too, Macrae had a real go, and, though the English defence still held ow, in reality the superior pace and dash of the Scotsmen was beginning to tell A 50- yard penalty kick to touch—against ihe wind—by Forrest produced the scrummage and the exciting scramble out of which Renwick emerged for a second time a scorer.
In the quarter of an hour before the interval there was a spate of scoring, and nearly all the honours belonged to Scotland. Once or twice ihe English forwards managed to rush the opposing backs, and, perhaps, on one occasion Giles was unlucky to over-run the ball when backing up Weston, but in defiance of the general situation, the initiative belonged to Scotland. This wi proved by the magnificent counterattack started in the loose by Young who found Duff, slow but well balanced, at his left shoulder. Duff in turn threw a long pass inwards to Crawford. This sent the attack moving out to the right instead of the left, and when Macrae linked up at top-speed and then passed to Dick there was no one capable of preventing a try—one of the best of its kind. Crawford's kick at goal was disallowed because of an infringement in placing the ball.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.