Scotland stuns England 31-20 at Murrayfield and snaps a 12-test winning streak

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — England's 12-test winning streak was shattered by Scotland pulling out an astonishingly one-sided 31-20 victory at Murrayfield in the Six Nations on Saturday.

England was favored to win at Murrayfield for the first time since 2020, having developed a mighty bench and become well-drilled and confident during its longest winning run in nine years.

But English set-piece dominance was undone by sloppy handling in Scotland's 22, under pressure from having to play catchup after a scintillating Scottish start.

Conducted by a masterly Finn Russell, Scotland blasted off to 17-0 after 14 minutes, its speed and slickness twisting an overburdened England into knots.

“I thought that was some of the best rugby we’ve every played,” Scotland coach Gregor Townsend told ITV. “It’s all you want as a coach. I thought that was one of Finn Russell’s best games for Scotland and the work rate of our forwards was superb.”

England winger Henry Arundell received a 20-minute red card but his first yellow card was the most damaging. Scotland, emotionally up for the match against its oldest rival and out to redeem for a woeful loss to Italy last weekend, exploited Arundell's absence in the fast start.

It was too much for England to overcome. By the time of Arundell's second yellow card right on halftime, leading to the automatic red, Scotland was still up by 14. In his second absence, Scotland out-scored England only 7-3 though it was a second try for center Huw Jones and Scotland's bonus-point fourth and last try.

“We are bitterly disappointed at that first 20 minutes, the lead Scotland got ahead of us and playing for such a long period with 14 men,” England coach Steve Borthwick told the BBC.

“The way Scotland can move the ball to the edges without our winger it exposed us there and it gave us too much to do.”

Scotland and Townsend, on the occasion of his 100th test, were under fire all week after Italy humbled them 18-15 in Rome.

A sixth win (plus the epic draw in 2019) against England in nine matchups, all under Townsend, will quieten the growing clamor for him to resign, at least until Scotland's final position in the championship becomes clear.

“There has been a lot of talk about Gregor Townsend but his players really showed up today, they really performed and really played for Gregor today,” Borthwick said. “They don’t play like that in every single game."

Beating England has given Townsend's Scotland a best placing of only third, leading supporters to believe the victories, while celebrated, have been used by the team to gloss over poor campaigns.

Townsend didn't deny it: “We've given them something to shout about for the next 12 months.”

Against Italy, Scotland made no line breaks. Against England, it made 10 in the first half alone.

Arundell was coming off a hat trick against Wales but after he was sin-binned early for not releasing, Russell's one-handed flick on with Tom Roebuck in his face set up the opening try for Jones.

A Russell line break was followed by captain Sione Tuipulotu's huge pass to unmarked flanker Jamie Ritchie to stroll over.

Arundell returned from the sin-bin to score thanks to George Ford, who added a conversion and penalty, and England looked to be finding a foothold.

But Russell then switched the attack, stepped two defenders and chipped ahead. England prop Ellis Genge made a mess of grabbing the ball and Scotland scrumhalf Ben White took the gift over the tryline.

Right on halftime, Arundell took out leaping opposite Kyle Steyn and his second yellow card became a 20-minute red.

Ford started the second half with a penalty; he was perfect off the tee. But his drop goal attempt was charged down by Matt Fagerson, who collected the ball and let Jones race to the posts at the other end. It made Jones Scotland's top try-scorer in Six Nations history since 2000 (18), and the leading try-scorer against England (8) in the same period.

Russell went five for five in goalkicking, a year after his late missed conversion cost Scotland a fifth straight win over England.

England was consoled by a late converted try to No. 8 Ben Earl.

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

Scotland's Huw Jones, right, celebrates scoring a try with teammates during the Six Nations rugby union match between Scotland and England in Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu lifts the Calcutta Cup after winning the Six Nations rugby union match between Scotland and England in Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Scotland's Finn Russell, center, in action during the Six Nations rugby union match between Scotland and England in Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Scotland's Huw Jones, right, scores during the Six Nations rugby union match between Scotland and England in Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Scotland's Ben White celebrates scoring a try during the Six Nations rugby union match between Scotland and England in Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — This is not the run-up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.

A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict.

The war in Iran was largely unpopular even before an American fighter jet was shot down in Iran, a development that dominated headlines on Friday and contradicted Trump’s claim that Tehran's military capabilities have been all but destroyed. One crew member has been rescued.

Earlier in the week, the Republican president offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”

Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.

“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”

It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.

At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.

Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.

The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.

The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”

Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.

On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.

He insisted that the war would be worth it.

“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.

The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.

About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.

At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.

Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.

Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.

Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.

“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.

He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”

Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.

“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

In this image made with a long exposure, President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)