Hard fought victory over Scotland

England lined up their strongest side to face a motivated Scotland Team on Saturday night in Auckland. The Scottish backup by thousand of supporters started the game fiercely, playing penalties quickly to try to destabilized this methodical English squad.

Scotland proved better at the set pieces and a penalized scrum enabled Chris Paterson to score the first point for the Scottish. The same Paterson added another 3 points after England was penalised (once again) at a breakdown.

On the other side of the pitch, Johnny Wilkinson was struggling with his kicking putting through only one penalty out of 4. Scotland closed the first half with a drop goal from Parks and was definitely the strongest side after 40 minutes.

England came back on the field and took the upper hand on the set pieces, stealing a few balls in the lineouts and pushing back the Scottish in the scrums. Wilkinson still struggled with his kicking but managed to close the gap to 3 points.

And at the 78th minutes, following on from a move from a lineout, Chris Ashton scored a try in the corner enabling all the English Supporters to breath. The kick was converted by Tobby Flood and England finished the game with a margin of 4 points.