The defending champions got their campaign off to the perfect start with London Irish starlet Marland Yarde running in a hat-trick.

But despite the flattering nature of the scoreline, Leicester fly-half Ford is adamant they had to earn every point the hard way against a determined Scotland side.

He said: “It’s great to kick our Six Nations off with a win here in Scotland – we knew that it wouldn’t be an easy place to come and that proved to be the case.

“There are a few cuts and bruises in the changing room but we’re really happy to get the win.

“It was a real team performance tonight and everyone played their part, the hard work paid off but there’s still a long way to go.”

Scotland had actually taken the lead through a Harry Leonard penalty but after that it was largely one-way traffic with Ford kicking 14 points while No.8 Jack Clifford touched down two tries.

Winger Charlie Walker also crossed twice with a penalty try and one from replacement Anthony Watson rounding off the scoring.

Next up for England is a trip to Italy, whose game against France was postponed on Friday night and head coach Rob Hunter was delighted with his backline’s ruthless finishing.

He said: “Scotland were very competitive as we knew they would be. Our back line showed how experienced they are tonight with some very well taken tries.

“This was always going to be a tough game and it’s great to get the win – we’ll enjoy this for 24 hours before focussing all of our attentions onto Italy next week.”