England 26 Scotland 12: England regained the Calcutta Cup with a victory at Twickenham that will pile the pressure on embattled Scotland coach Frank Hadden. For the third season in a row, Hadden has failed to meet the minimum requirement of two Six Nations victories laid down by his employers at the Scottish Rugby Union.

All Scotland have to show for their championship is a home win over one of the poorest Italy sides to have competed in the Six Nations and a couple of plucky defeats.

England, meanwhile, were left to consider what might have been after away defeats in Wales and Ireland cost them any chance of playing for the title this afternoon.

This may have been just a prelude to the day’s main event in Cardiff but it was of no less importance to Martin Johnson in his attempts to rebuild ‘Fortress Twickenham’.

England secured a third straight home win with tries from Ugo Monye, man of the match Riki Flutey and Mathew Tait plus eight points from the boot of Toby Flood and a Danny Care drop goal.

England went into the match unchanged following last weekend’s 34-10 victory over France, while Scotland brought Scott Gray in at open-side flanker.

Scotland, who had not won at Twickenham since 1983, started both halves well and kept in touch with three penalties from Chris Paterson and a long-range strike from Phil Godman.

Hadden’s men succeeded where France failed last week, by absorbing England’s early attacking threat and briefly turning the tables to ask questions of Martin Johnson’s men.

Mark Cueto had a break snuffed out by Max and Thom Evans down one wing and Delon Armitage, whose pace ripped France to shreds last weekend, was expertly shepherded into touch by Paterson.

In between time, Paterson had given Scotland a 3-0 lead after Harry Ellis was penalised for not rolling away and Thom Evans came within a metre of scoring a brilliant breakaway try.

The Glasgow winger sprinted clear after Ellis had tried to snipe down the blindside. He left Flood in his wake and looked for all the world like scoring a 70-metre special.

But Evans had not banked on the electric pace of England’s former schoolboy sprinter Monye, who raced diagonally across field and pulled off one of the great tackles to deny him in the corner.

England conceded five penalties in the first 16 minutes and they also lost Phil Vickery and Ellis to injuries.

Vickery looked dazed when he went off but play was halted for around 10 minutes after Ellis was knocked out in a tackle on Simon Danielli and eventually taken off the field on a stretcher.

He required stitches to a gash behind the ear but was back on the England bench smiling before the end of the game.

England would not have asked for a break under such circumstances, but they made the most of it and emerged from their huddle to dominate the rest of the half.

England soon took the lead with a slick move featuring Flutey and Flood creating the chance for Monye to slip out of Paterson’s cover tackle and score his first Test try.

It had taken just over 22 minutes but England had regained their swagger from last week and they scored again after Scotland made a mess of a lineout just five metres out.

England spread the ball left and Flutey cut between two defenders and wriggled his way to the line for a try confirmed by the television officials.

Mike Blair then wasted a golden opportunity for a quick Scotland reply when he failed to spot Danielli screaming for the inside pass having spun clear of England’s defence.

It was a only brief respite for Scotland. Simon Shaw charged down a kick from Blair and Flutey injected some pace into the attack before being hauled down just short of the line.

The forwards took over but Julian White was ruled to have been held up after a tunnelling drive for the line before England finished the half with a penalty for Flood.

The half-time statistics did not make happy reading for Scotland. England had enjoyed 62 per cent possession, 68 per cent territory and won ball in their opponent’s 22 on 22 occasions to Scotland’s nil.

And with Johnson urging England to “out-work and out-enthuse” their opponents, nor did the full-time figures show Scotland in a good light. England made twice as many passes and forced Scotland into twice as many tackles.

England, though, lost the penalty count again — poor discipline has cost them dear in this championship — and that allowed Scotland to chip away at their lead in the second half with Paterson slotting two more efforts to finish the tournament with a 100% record.

Godman joined in on the act with a long-range strike but Scotland could not get close enough to England.

Care slotted a drop goal to make it 21-12 and Tait rounded off the victory with a neatly-taken try in the corner.