Matt Dawson column: 'England fly-half George Ford stepped up in tough conditions'

Matt Dawson column: 'England fly-half George Ford stepped up in tough conditions'

Matt Dawson column: 'England fly-half George Ford stepped up in tough conditions'

I have never played in conditions as bad as those in which England won at Murrayfield on Saturday.

One moment you could kick the ball into the wind and it was not too bad, then the next time it would be going behind you. The passes were drifting on the breeze. Throwing the ball in the line-out, you would miss it by two meters. It was impossible to judge.

It was a shame because it had the makings of a really good Test match but I am not sure we learned anything about either team.

As far as game management goes, we have not really learned anything about how England are going to play going forward.

I cannot believe for a minute that England will look at the video from the game. It will be destined for the bin.

Potentially that could be a danger going into the Ireland game in two weeks' time. Ireland has had a couple of games to get into their rhythm, beating Scotland and Wales. They have got an analysis to build on over the next couple of weeks.

On Saturday, I was expecting the Scots to be a bit more able to adapt to those conditions. Every time England made a mistake, kicked straight to touch or knocked it on, you thought they would be under pressure.

Scotland had their chances and will be genuinely annoyed at not being able to apply more pressure to England on the scoreboard.