Victory over England saw Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup for the fourth year in succession, and put Gregor Townsend's side into second place in the Six Nations table with two games to play. 

We break down some of the key numbers from a historic day at Scottish Gas Murrayfield 

Three

Tries scored by Duhan van der Merwe against England in this year’s Calcutta Cup match across a span of 26 minutes. Just three other players in Scotland men’s history have scored more tries than that against England in their entire careers – Ian Smith, Huw Jones and Wilson Shaw.

Top try scorers for Scotland vs England

  • Nine tries: Ian Smith (1926 x2, 1927 x2, 1929 x2, 1931 x2, 1932)
  • Six tries: Duhan van der Merwe (2021, 2023 x2, 2024 x3)
  • Five tries: Wilson Shaw (1934, 1936, 1938 x2, 1939) Huw Jones (2017 x2, 2018 x2, 2023)
  • Three tries: Robert Ainslie (1881, 1882 x2) Ernest Simson (1903, 1905, 1907) Peter Brown (1971, 1971, 1972) Billy Steele (1971, 1973 x2) John Rutherford (1979, 1980, 1986)

Eight

Between 2018 and 2024, Scotland have scored eight tries in four Calcutta Cup encounters at Murrayfield. That’s more than they had scored at home in the previous 28 years of matches vs England (seven tries between 1988 and 2016).

Scotland Rugby News: Duhan van der Merwe celebrates his third try with Blair KinghornDuhan van der Merwe celebrates his third try with Blair Kinghorn (Image: SNS)

Between 2002 and 2016, Scotland only scored a single try against England at Murrayfield (Simon Danielli in 2004). Scotland fans have been treated to a veritable feast of try-scoring after years of doing without.

Ten

Finn Russell made just 10 passes against England – the fewest he has managed in any game he has started during the Townsend era (2017 – 2024).

During this period Russell has averaged 32 passes per 80 minutes played, with a high of 53 for a single game in the World Cup warm-up fixture against France in St Etienne.

Twenty-eight

In the four games he has played against England, Duhan van der Merwe has carried the ball 28 times. He has turned those carries into:

  • 287 metres made
  • Seven line breaks
  • 25 defenders beaten
  • Six tries

Thirty

The points tally from Saturday’s match is just the third time in history that a Scotland Men’s team have scored 30 or more points in any fixture versus England:

  • 2019 – 38 points (draw at Twickenham)
  • 1986 – 33 points (win at Murrayfield)
  • 2024 – 30 points (win at Murrayfield)

Thirty-two

Scotland’s wingers Darcy Graham, Kyle Steyn and Duhan van der Merwe have filled the number 11 and 14 jerseys for 37 out of 38 available slots across Scotland’s last 19 Tests. During that time they have scored a combined 32 tries.

  • Fiji – van der Merwe
  • New Zealand – Graham
  • Argentina – Graham (3), van der Merwe
  • England – van der Merwe (2)
  • Wales – Steyn (2)
  • France – none
  • Ireland – none
  • Italy – van der Merwe
  • Italy – Graham (2)
  • France – Graham
  • France – Steyn (2), van der Merwe
  • Georgia – van der Merwe (2), Steyn
  • South Africa – none
  • Tonga – Graham, Steyn, van der Merwe
  • Romania – Graham (4)
  • Ireland – none
  • Wales – van der Merwe (2)
  • France – none
  • England – van der Merwe (3)

Six hundred

Duhan van der Merwe’s third try was the 600th scored by Scotland in a Test match at Murrayfield. Way back in 1925, scrum-half Jimmy Nelson had the honour of scoring Scotland’s first try at the national side’s new home ground.

Tony Stanger is Scotland’s record try scorer at Murrayfield – 21 of the winger’s 24 international tries were notched on home turf.

Two thousand

The penalty kicked by Finn Russell in the 35th minute brought up 2,000 points scored under head coach Gregor Townsend.

He is the first Scotland coach to achieve this mark. The only other coaches with over 1,000 points scored during their reigns are Ian McGeechan (1,639) and Jim Telfer (1,388).