Rugby Union: Action Replay: Paterson's late raid plunders victory

England 15 Scotland 16

Scotland's rugby union team came to Twickenham for the Calcutta Cup match 28 years ago looking for their first win in London since before the Second World War. Reporting for the Sunday Mirror was Gary Newbon, 25, who went on to become Central TV's Controller of Sport

OH! CALCUTTA! Scotland snatched their first post-war Twickenham win with eight points in the final seven minutes.

The Scots' championship wooden-spoonists, without a win before yesterday, were trailing 15-8 before this dramatic finale. Seven stunning minutes later the Scotland team were carrying off skipper Peter Brown and the Calcutta Cup with their first win at the Rugby Union HQ since 1938.

But afterwards England captain John Spencer protested that a whistle in the crowd cost England the match. He claimed: "We all stood still for Duncan Paterson's try after 74 minutes. There was a blatant knock-on and a whistle went. We now know it came from the crowd. We all stood still and all he had to do was drop on the ball."

Scrum half Paterson was behind both late tries - the last in the final minute. First he dived on a loose ball to poach the controversial try. Then he made a break from a ruck inside the England 25. Peter Brown was up to throw out a long pass to his centre, Chris Rea, who swept over. Peter Brown converted. The Scots had won.

Yet only sixty seconds earlier the 60,000 Twickenham crowd were expecting once again to herald Big Boots Bob Hiller. He had looked like repeating his one-man scoring act for England for the third successive international. Scorer of all England's 23 points in the two previous matches, the kicking king of Twickers scored all but three of England's 15 yesterday. But in this game he missed three penalties and two conversions. England rely so heavily on him for points that flanker Tony Neary made news by breaking the monotony with an unconverted second-half try.

The Scots, so dominant throughout in the line-out, suffered a serious blow in the seventh minute when their tearaway centre, John Frame, went off with a badly bruised thigh. He was replaced by substitute Steve Turk, with left wing Alastair Biggar moving inside to centre. This put extra responsibility on the speedy Rea, who must have impressed the Lions' selectors at this final hour.

The biggest battle was at the base of the scrum, where David Powell and new cap Fran Cotton were pushing Scotland's smaller props, McLauchlan and Alex Car-michael, down to such an extent that there were several collapses.

England have found the right half-back combination with the new pairing of scrum half Jacko Page and Dick Cowman. Cowman had a hand in England's magnificent try by Hiller which opened the scoring in the eleventh minute.

England: Tries: Hiller, Neary. Pens: Hiller 3. Scotland: Tries: P Brown, Paterson, Rea. Conversions: P Brown 2. Drop goal: Paterson.

ENGLAND: R Hiller (Harlequins); J Janion (Bedford), C Wardlow (Northampton), J Spencer (Headingley, capt), D Duckham (Coventry); A Cowman (Loughborough College), J Page (Bedford); D Powell (Northampton), J Pullin (Bristol), F Cotton (Loughborough College), P Larter (Northampton), N Horton (Moseley), A Bucknall (Richmond), R Taylor (Northampton), A Neary (Broughton Park. Replacement: I Wright (Northampton) for Wardlow.

SCOTLAND: A Brown (Gala); W Steele (RAF/Bedford), J Frame (Gala), C Rea (Headingley), A Biggar (London Scottish); J Turner (Gala), D Paterson (Gala); J McLauchlan (Jordanhill), Q Dunlop (West of Scotland), S Carmichael (West of Scotland), A McHarg (London Scottish), G Brown (West of Scotland), N MacEwan (Gala), P Brown (Gala, capt), R Arneil (Leicester). Replacement: A Turk (Langholm) for Frame.

Referee: C Durand (France).