Six Nations 2005
Noon powers England to Calcutta Cup glory
Scrum.com
March 19, 2005
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Date/Time: Mar 19, 2005, 18:00 local, 18:00 GMT
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London
England 43 - 22 Scotland
Attendance: 73000  Half-time: 26 - 10
Tries: Cueto, Ellis, Lewsey, Noon 3, JPR Worsley
Cons: Hodgson 4
Tries: Craig, SF Lamont, Taylor
Cons: Paterson 2
Pens: Paterson
England skipper Martin Corry lifts the Calcutta Cup after his side's win over Scotland at Twickenham, March 19 2005
Martin Corry lifts the Clacutta Cup for England
© Getty Images
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Jamie Noon scored a hat-trick of tries as England beat Scotland to win the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham. England ran in seven tries in total as they finished a frustrating RBS 6 Nations campaign with a flourish.

England opened a 26-3 lead as Noon scored two well-worked tries, Joe Worsley powered over in the corner and Josh Lewsey exploited a break from Mark Cueto.

But Scotland, as they did last week against Wales, staged a spirited fightback and scored either side of the interval through winger Sean Lamont and centre Andy Craig.

Harry Ellis dived over for his first Test try to halt Scotland´s charge but then fed Simon Taylor who ran 40-yards untouched to keep the visitors in touch.

But Noon´s third and a deserved score for Cueto secured England´s victory.

England against Scotland is the oldest rugby fixture on the rugby calendar, dating back to 1871 but today it seemed little more than a sideshow.

Kick-off came 45 minutes after Cardiff erupted into one almighty party as Wales won the Grand Slam with victory over Ireland.

At Twickenham, England and Scotland met for the 122nd time.

The best either side could finish in the championship was fourth.

That did not halt any of the pre-match hype.

Andy Robinson declared Scotland would arrive in London fuelled by their hatred of England.

Robinson himself admitted he had learned the biggest lesson possible during England´s narrow defeats to Wales, France and Ireland - win first, style second.

But England started with a dash of invention.

A crunching tackle from Josh Lewsey on Rory Lamont helped England win the ball in the Scotland 22.

Iain Balshaw was halted just short as he took a dart for the line when there was perhaps an overlap to be exploited outside.

Chris Paterson then calmly took a Hodgson up and under, skipped around Lewis Moody and embarked on a searing break into the England half.

But he was on his own and the momentum was lost as he through a blind pass to the floor.

Williams last weekend admitted Scotland could learn a great deal from Wales´ support play. Clearly, the lesson had not hit home.

Hodgson let Scotland off the hook with a wayward first attempt at goal but with 13 minutes on the clock the Sale fly-half carved the opening for England to score the first try.

Ben Kay won the ball at the lineout, Hodgson floated through a giant gap in the Scotland defence between Ross and Rory Lamont before providing the scoring pass to Jamie Noon for his second Test try.

Kay was injured as he landed in the lineout and was replaced immediately after Hodgson had converted the try by Steve Borthwick.

Paterson then missed a quick opportunity to reduce the arrears after Balshaw had been penalised for hands in the ruck.

Scotland´s poor tackling was as much to blame for their first half demolition last weekend as Wales´ brilliance and again their soft defence proved costly.

After Paterson had succeeded with his second attempt to get Scotland on the board, England piled forward from the restart and Noon escaped the clutches of Hogg and Ross to break the line.

The Newcastle centre evaded Blair´s diving tackle and barged Paterson aside on his way to the line and touched down under the posts to leave Hodgson a simple conversion.

Scotland had barely had the chance to reorganise when Mark Cueto held off the attentions of Sean Lamont down the right long enough to feed Joe Worsley with the ball a yard from the try-line. Despite Hines´ best efforts, the England blindside touched down.

In the meantime, Scotland prop Tom Smith had been replaced by Bruce Douglas and after half an hour England lost Balshaw, who was stretchered from the field with a leg injury.

England threatened to cut loose and while their execution was still a little rusty, Lewsey, now at fullback, was on hand to finish off the fourth try after Cueto had exploited more space in the Scotland defence.

Scotland hit back just before the interval after Hugo Southwell had split the England defence and handed on to his centre partner Andy Craig who turned it back inside for Sean Lamont to touch down.

England´s injury toll rose further at the interval when Moody was replaced by Andy Hazell after injuring his leg as he flew in to collect a 22 drop out at the end of the first half.

Scotland scored again within five minutes of the restart with an 80-metre move sparked by Paterson´s counter-attack.

The Scotland full-back skipped around Martin Corry, stepped past Ellis and then chipped over Lewsey. Blair scooped up the bouncing ball, fed Paterson again who sent Craig over for the score.

Paterson converted and Scotland had closed the gap to nine points.

England halted the Scotland charge with a well-worked fifth try as Ollie Smith, on for Balshaw, slipped a wonderful pass out the back of his hand to Ellis who beat Jason White´s tackle and dived over for his first Test try.

But Ellis´ fine finish was cancelled out immediately after he fed a pass straight at Scotland´s Taylor, who ran over untouched from 40 metres out.

Paterson missed the conversion and only a crunching cover tackle from Lewsey enied Scotland another try after Rory Lamont had brushed through attempted tackles from Steve Thompson and Smith down the right wing.

Matt Dawson was introduced for Ellis and made an immediate impact, sparking England´s attack into life once more.

After Dawson´s slipped pass to Hodgson had worked the opening, Noon was on hand to dive over in the left corner to seal his hat-trick.

And Cueto, so instrumental in creating two of England´s first-half scores, then touched down for a deserved try after Barkley´s break through the middle.

England: 43 Try: Noon (3), Worsley, Smith, Ellis, Cueto Con: Hodgson (4)

Scotland: 22 Try: S Lamont, Craig, Taylor Con: Paterson (2) Pen: Paterson

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