Every time the tall, imperious Blair Kinghorn plucked a ball out of the sky he seemed to work those long levers of his to put away another Scotland runner.
Van der Merwe’s break from midfield developed the move, and Huw Jones, another thorn in English sides in that four-match losing streak against this lot, put Tom Jordan, a new threat, away down the left.
Scotland might well have protested over the grounding of the ball, if indeed there was one, by Tommy Freeman for his try, but they came again and scored another beauty at the end of the first quarter.
Just a flick to the supporting Van der Merwe would have notched try No 3, but Russell could not get the ball away as he fell to the ground through Slade’s despairing arms.
Not losing to England necessarily – this is the first time they have done that since 2020, after all – but sick of running rings around opponents for large stretches of a match and failing to come away with the win.
