England retain Six Nations title after trouncing Scotland 61-21

England 61-21 Scotland, Twickenham Stadium
Scorecard

Jonathan Joseph starred with a hat-trick as England completed a 61-21 victory over Scotland at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday to retain the Six Nations title.

The win has taken England to 18 points and they are the only undefeated team in the tournament while the second placed Ireland team are eight points away. This was also England's highest score against Scotland as they also retain the Calcutta Cup which was presented to skipper Dylan Hartley by Prince Harry.

The red rose team have now stretched their winning streak to 18 games - levelling New Zealand's world record and will be heading to Aviva Stadium next weekend with a motive to create a world record and also record their second Grand Slam in consecutive years.

Scotland suffered an early setback in the game after hooker Fraser Brown was sin-binned in the first minute for lifting Elliot Daly above the horizontal during the tackle.

Joseph capitalised on the advantage and overhauled his opposite numbers to score his first try in the second minute and Owen Farrell added a conversion and two penalties to take England to 13 points lead in first quarter.

The injury prone Scotland lost both Stuart Hogg and Mark Benett in the 17th and 21st minute to head and hamstring injuries respectively. Joseph continued the momentum and went past the line for the second time in the game in 24th minute and Farrell's extras stretched England lead to 20-0.

Scotland made a brief comeback with prop Gordon Reid replying back to England onslaught with a 28th minute touchdown allowing Finn Russell with the conversion. However, Bath wing Anthony Watson announced his comeback coming off the bench and scored the third try for England in the 34th minute and it was sandwiched between a penalty and a conversion from Farrell as the hosts ended the first half with a 30-7 lead.

Joseph started the second half in a similar fashion as he strolled past the post in the 42nd minute as England lead swelled to 40-7 after Farrell added a conversion and a penalty. Scotland centre Huw Jones went past Joseph and Jack Nowell in the 49th minute to score the second try for the visitors.

The much awaited Billy Vunipola's return came in the 51st minute when he replaced Nathan Hughes and he straightaway created an impact battering through driving maul and crossed over in the 56th minute.

Even though Jones waged a lone fight with his second try in the 68th minute, replacement Danny Care made an impactful final 10 minutes as he rumbled past the post twice to take England to 61-21 victory.

Scotland captain John Barclay lamented his team's performance on Saturday and credited England for their dominance.

"We just didn't show up. We got off to a bad start and continued, our discipline was very poor and we gave away soft tries.

"You don't win however many games in a row without being a good side so good luck to England. We are trying to move away from the tag of plucky losers but that wasn't even that. We were useless."

Our 6 Nations cover is sponsored by Allett Mowers