Six Nations Championship/England - 43 Scotland - 22: The Calcutta Cup remains under lock and key in Twickenham's museum but after another emphatic victory in international rugby's oldest fixture England are refusing to dwell on the past.
The 2005 Six Nations championship receded into history on Saturday night after a match which England hope will finally banish the ghosts of the 2003 World Cup. With Martin Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio looking on in their new roles as TV pundits, England's new-look side at last suggested they are moving forward to the next World Cup in France after losing their way in the long tunnel of winter.
Only one player who started the World Cup final 16 months ago played the entire 80 minutes on Saturday, Josh Lewsey scoring one of England's seven tries. But all over the Twickenham pitch young players were growing into the white shirt.
It was all too much for Scotland, 43 points equalling England's biggest score in this fixture even if the margin of victory was way off the 43-3 win here four years ago.
"We are going from strength to strength," said the head coach Andy Robinson. "We have a team that will be able to take on anyone in the world."
That claim may have been aimed at the Southern Hemisphere market, for Australia and New Zealand are England's next major challenge in the autumn.
Robinson knows that although 13 tries in a week against Italy and Scotland are a feast after the sour taste of defeat in their opening three Six Nations games when they managed only three, England can demonstrate true progress only by producing the same kind of consistency over the Southern Hemisphere sides achieved by his predecessor Clive Woodward.
But Twickenham was not letting the small matter of a Welsh Grand Slam quell its celebrations and things were as intoxicating off the pitch as they were often on. There were plenty of reasons to raise a glass.
Jamie Noon's hat-trick of tries erased memories of his fraught game alongside his club-mate and teenage debutant Mathew Tait in Cardiff last month, Mark Cueto's eight tries in eight games this season have given the wing a claim on a Lions Test place, and the English pack coped with the loss of further personnel before and during the match to subdue the potentially dangerous Scottish forwards.
Robinson's starting line-up originally contained four Leicester forwards.
By the start of the second half only one, Martin Corry, was still on the pitch. Graham Rowntree failed a fitness test on Saturday morning and Ben Kay and Lewis Moody were injured during a first half which also saw a key Scotland forward, Tom Smith, substituted with a worrying neck injury.
With England running out of props Robinson called up the Harlequins tighthead Mike Worsley on Friday afternoon and for a man who had not trained with the pack he made an impressive fist of it, even supplying a perfectly timed pass for Noon to run in his third try.
The 14th-minute introduction of Steve Borthwick at lock after Kay had damaged an ankle in landing from the lineout he won to supply possession for Noon's first try in no way weakened England, whose lineout functioned better than it had done all year in an area where Scotland were expected to give them problems.
England were too strong up front and had too much snap behind the scrum for Scotland to reverse a doleful winless run here that stretches back to 1983. Although the visitors rallied in the third quarter with two tries from thin air, one a length-of-the-field gem begun by Chris Paterson and finished by Andy Craig, the other a freakish steal from a halfway lineout by Simon Taylor, they have lost their 14th match in 17 under their coach Matt Williams.
His view that they may soon win this championship must have needed rose-tinted spectacles.
ENGLAND: Balshaw (Leeds); Cueto (Sale), Noon (Newcastle), Barkley (Bath), Lewsey (Wasps); Hodgson (Sale), Ellis (Leicester); Stevens (Bath), Thompson (Northampton), Bell (Bath), Grewcock (Bath), Kay (Leicester), Worsley (Wasps), Moody (Leicester), Corry (Leicester, capt). Replacements: Borthwick (Bath) for Kay 14, O Smith (Leicester) for Balshaw 30, Hazzell (Gloucester) for Moody half-time, Worsley (Harlequins) for Bell 51, Dawson (Northampton) for Ellis 64, Titterrall (Sale) for Thompson 71, Goode (Leicester) for Hodge 75. Tries: Noon 3, J Worsley, Lewsey, Ellis, Cueto. Cons: Hodgson 4.
SCOTLAND: Paterson (Edinburgh); R Lamont, Craig (both Glasgow), Southwell (Edinburgh), S Lamont (Glasgow); Ross (Leeds), Blair (Edinburgh); Smith (Northampton), Bulloch (Glasgow, capt), Kerr (Leeds), Hines (Edinburgh), Murray (Edinburgh), White (Sale), Hogg (Edinburgh), Taylor (Edinburgh). Replacements: Douglas (Borders) for Smith 23, Grimes (Newcastle) for Murray 32, Petrie (Glasgow) for Hogg 64. Tries: S Lamont, Craig, Taylor. Cons: Paterson 2. Pen: Paterson.
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).
