IT WAS a bittersweet day for Malpas-educated rugby star Tom Curry as he captained England for the first time ever in a game.

Curry became the youngest England captain since Will Carling but a last-minute penalty kick condemned them to defeat against Scotland during their Six Nations clash at Murrayfield.

The former Bishop Heber High School pupil, who is the son of the headteacher, David Curry, led his country onto the field at a hostile Murrayfield, Edinburgh for the Calcutta Cup clash on the opening weekend of the Guinness Six Nations championship.

Curry was chosen as captain, by coach Eddie Jones, following injuries to regular captain, Owen Farrell and Farrell's intended replacement for the captaincy, Courtney Lawes.

The result left Curry and England being extremely disappointed, but the former Malpas schoolboy said they would learn from it.

He said: "We play rugby to win don't we.

"Obviously, bittersweet but as I say we are here to win.

"Gutted but we keep our heads up.

"I think we learnt a lot as a team."

England had gone into half-time trailing 10-6 after Scotland scored a try through replacement scrum-half, Ben White and a penalty from outside-half, Finn Russell.

England hit back in the second half through a penalty and a try from outside-half, Marcus Smith.

Smith added another penalty in 63rd minute giving England a seven-point lead.

But the game turned in Scotland's favour again when England hooker, Luke Cowan-Dickie was judged to have deliberately knocked the ball on and into touch when defending a cross field kick.

Cowan-Dickie was subsequently yellow carded in the 66th minute and Scotland were awarded a penalty try which took the score to 17 all.

When asked about the sin binning, Jones said: "Luke is disappointed.

"That happens in the moment.

"He played exceptionally well, and he is very disappointed.

"But all the boys are supporting him.

With the one-man advantage Scotland took the lead after another penalty from Finn Russell and held on to retain the Calcutta Cup.

Jones blamed England's defeat on them not being clinical enough rather than Cowan-Dickie's yellow card.

He said: "I think we had opportunities in that second half to kick on a little, but we just were not clinical enough.

"We only have ourselves to blame.

"We’re massively disappointed we lost, Scotland deserved to win, but I think we dominated a lot of the game.

"We just didn’t get the points out of the domination."

England's next clash will be against Italy in Rome next Sunday.