Was it pluck or luck that took England to victory over Scotland? The wheel of fortune has certainly spun. England generally played well across 2024 yet found themselves coming out on the wrong side of results; in these last two rounds of the Six Nations, they have been outclassed for significant periods yet ended up just about on the right side of the ledger.

This was, Steve Borthwick admitted afterwards, not a performance of which England could be entirely proud. With Scotland forcing them to stray from their strategy, most of their attacking ambition was tempered – Twickenham’s boos may have eventually turned to cheers but there were times when the Allianz Stadium crowd made their disapproval perfectly clear.

But progress can be made in many ways, even in perhaps England’s worst performance in a year. It is not always great adventurous bounds that take you forward; tentative tiptoes in the right direction can be just as crucial. Statisticians will tell you that a side that regularly comes out on the wrong side of tight games will eventually find the tables turn; after the pain of last year, this side have earned the rub of the green.

“We don’t necessarily want to play the way we played today,” Borthwick conceded. “But we found a way to win and we’ll make sure we’re better for this experience.

“I am a believer that you get back what you put in. I’m a believer that if you keep trying to do the right things, if you keep working hard, you will get rewarded. It’s the way I was brought up. That’s part of my roots, part of my make-up.”

Borthwick has aimed to instil those tenets in his squad ever since his arrival two years ago. Over time, he has got England to run more and more, building a more athletic pack that he believes is better suited to the evolution of Test rugby. Imperfect it may have been, but the win over Scotland showed the never-say-die scrambling the head coach and defensive overseer Joe El-Abd want from the squad – cut repeatedly by Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Van der Merwe in the first half, England managed to avoid Scotland turning points into pressure with relentless, accurate defensive stands inside their 22.

Ben and brother Tom in many ways embody the qualities of this England side. The sight of Tom limping off just after half time was a real concern given the life-long hip issues he is now having to manage, with news of a dead leg welcome under the circumstances. But the flanker had already emptied the tank to set the tone for England’s performance – and in Ben, on minutes earlier after Tom Willis’s head injury, Borthwick could call upon a ready-made replacement.

“It’s just Tom, isn’t it?” Ben chuckled of his identical twin. “He doesn’t make it easy for himself, but it’s unbelievable; I love playing with him. When I come on the pitch and he’s there, it feels like we’re 10 again.

“He puts his head in some dark places, doesn’t he? He gets through a ton of work and it’s a sign not just of a good rugby player but of his character as well. You talk about looking around the circle [huddle] and looking people in the eyes, no one could question his integrity, his desire and his willingness to put the team above himself. You see that week-in, week-out and I don’t think there’s anyone better in the world at it.”

England’s defensive tweaks are still showing frailties, with a tendency to leave Marcus Smith and Alex Mitchell exposed on the edges exploited regularly by Scotland. But El-Abd’s system is affording his back row more opportunities to jackal – Ben Earl’s efficacy as an attacking force seems to have dimmed but he and the Curry brothers wrought havoc at times with Pierre Brousset proving a receptive referee to their ruck rustling.

During the autumn, El-Abd had sought to complete the erection of England’s grand defensive designs, sticking with the “hammer” system diagrammed by former defensive coach Felix Jones. But without its architect – Jones handed in his resignation last summer – an unsteady, ambitious structure repeatedly came crashing down. England remain a high line-speed team but there is now greater protection, the outside backs not quite so conclusively committing themselves.

Fin Smith’s 16 tackles perfectly encapsulated his side’s defensive steel on a day where he could not get the attack to click. The fly-half’s uprooting of Tom Jordan was one of 20 from the hosts, according to statistics from RugbyPass.

“It was like being in a tumble dryer,” Curry remarked. “It was just, make a tackle, get up, make another one. The big thing with Joe [El-Abd] and Tom as a defensive leader is that it’s about earning respect from your mates and doing it for each other.

“My personal view on defence is that it’s got to mean more than just tackling. You’ve got to want to hit people. It’s an unnatural thing to put your head in a dark place where it shouldn’t be. You’ve got to have a deeper reason to do that, especially in our defence.

“We want to try and tackle in twos - so it requires you to be on the same page as your mates. You don’t want to go in half-heartedly because you know your mate’s going in 100 per cent, it’s like guilt. You know he’s flying in; I’m not going to let him down.”

England, of course, still conceded three tries. They would have lost had Russell, a 77 per cent kicker in the Premiership this season, managed to land any of his three conversions. Making more than twice as many tackles as your opponent is not a sustainable route to success; nor giving up almost twice the metre-age. Yet their band of brothers have re-found their defensive spirit: a stroke of luck they may have needed to win but England’s pluck will stand them in good stead.