Six Nations: 'Scotland were world class but England's Marcus Smith should have stayed on'

I was talking to a Scottish mate after Scotland's Calcutta Cup win against England on Saturday and he was in a bit of a daze about how well they had played.

I had to convince him. Scotland were world class with their rugby intelligence and thoroughly deserved to win the game.

Both teams played well but Scotland played incredibly without the ball, under pressure and in the wrong areas of the pitch.

I don't think I met an England fan post-match who thought differently. England were completely outplayed.

There are plenty of things to be encouraged about, but England were not good enough to beat Scotland.

One thing that did not make sense was taking England fly-half Marcus Smith off for the last 20 minutes of the game.

There had previously been some reluctance to start Smith because of his lack of international experience given he is only 22.

After his Murrayfield performance, there is no question that Smith is the man for England at number 10.

No-one can say 'he needs to have experienced players around him' any more. Of course, that is always going to be of benefit, but saw from that performance it was not necessary.

As we saw when Smith was replaced, England could not finish the game off with George Ford even though he is in form.

Smith looked comfortable and confident and you should not be taking fly-halves off when they are in total control.

He is going to be tired and his stats are not going to be where they were at the beginning of the game, but he had control of the England performance.

I don't think it was necessary to put another fly-half in to see the game out with only a seven-point lead.

Despite the defeat, there are plenty of things for England fans to be encouraged by.

England were good in possession and they had attacking