Gregor Townsend compares Duhan van der Merwe’s stunning solo try to something in a video game

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend compared Duhan van der Merwe’s stunning solo try against England to playing a video game after the wing inspired his side to a pulsating Calcutta Cup win at Twickenham. 

Eleven minutes before half-time Van der Merwe received the ball inside his own half and sliced through England’s defence, beating five defenders en route to scoring his first of two fine tries.

‘It was incredible, wasn’t it?’ Townsend said.

‘It reminded me of when you played Jonah Lomu Rugby and suddenly one person can go quicker.’ 

He added: ‘Duhan hasn’t had much rugby over the last few weeks… to play like he did today on the back of an injury and not playing for Edinburgh is a real testament to how he’s got himself in this position mentally and physically.’ 

Gregor Townsend was full of praise for Duhan van der Merwe’s stunning solo try

Townsend compared Der Merwe’s run to something you only when playing video games 

Van der Merwe then finished a brilliant team try six minutes from time as Scotland came from 20-12 down to secure a second successive win at Twickenham.

‘It’s a brilliant finish but that first try was amazing — and one that gets the Scotland supporters going crazy in the stands and silences everybody else because you don’t see tries like that very often,’ Townsend added. 

‘I felt a lot of emotion at the final whistle… I never came close to winning when I was a player — to come down here it was always the same result as a player or supporter.’ 

But Scotland have now won three consecutive Six Nations matches against the Auld Enemy. ‘

Two years ago (when Scotland won here 11-6) there was no crowd, so to do it today was emotional.’ 

But Townsend warned his side: ‘This will mean nothing if we don’t get our recovery right, if we don’t train well on Tuesday, Wednesday and we don’t improve next week against Wales. 

‘The players now know that because we’ve done this a couple of times before and not backed it up. 

Here’s how Duhan van der Merwe produced one of the Calcutta Cup’s greatest ever tries