Jack Nowell’s late try ensured England clawed their way to the top of the Six Nations table on a small points difference as they condemned Scotland to a fourth successive loss in this year’s Championship.

Stuart Lancaster’s men captured the Calcutta Cup by running in three fine tries as they set up an exciting three-way assault on the title next Saturday with England, Wales and Ireland all in with a chance of being crowned Northern Hemisphere champions.

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England must now beat France at Twickenham to give themselves an opportunity of winning it, but they certainly made hard work of Scotland as they wasted numerous try-scoring chances.

This contest, always emotionally and physically explosive, gained even more importance thanks to the exploits in Cardiff ninety minutes or so earlier when the title was blown wide open.

Ireland lost their chance of Grand Slam glory with a 23-16 defeat by a Wales team rejuvenated following their opening fixture loss to Lancaster’s men at the Millennium Stadium.

 It was a rare moment in time when the English roared on the Red Dragons, and their prayers that the Welsh would fly to the rescue and leave the Six Nations sitting on a knife edge were answered.

But that result meant the men in white simply had to keep their side of the bargain and ensure a fourth successive defeat of the campaign for a struggling Scotland side.

England wasted a glorious chance to grab a very early try when they charged up the field from the kick off. George Ford opened the Scottish defence up with a pass to Luther Burrell who only had last man Stuart Hogg to beat. But the Englishman decided to try and go it alone rather than pass out wide right to Anthony Watson and was tackled to the ground by the Scotland full-back, and the chance went begging.

But England finished as strongly as they began the game and wing Nowell dived over in the left-hand corner for a try which put Lancaster’s team top of the table to set up a thrilling final day of the Championship next Saturday with three teams capable of winning the title.