Scotland dominated most of the first half with three kicks from fly-half Dan Parks to two from Jonny Wilkinson giving the home side a 9-6 advantage.

Neither team could establish any daylight against the opposition as the kickers continued to trade blows at regular intervals.

With four minutes remaining Toby Flood - on as a replacement for the injured Wilkinson - sent a 48m penalty against the post as honours between Scotland coach Andy Robinson and his former employers were left even.

A rousing rendition of Flower of Scotland marked the 20th anniversary of England's famous 13-7 Grand Slam defeat at Murrayfield but maybe the excess adrenaline on display contributed to an error-strewn opening to the game.

Parks opened the scoring with a sixth-minute penalty before on 14 minutes Wilkinson levelled the scores through a chorus of boos with a penalty in front of the posts after Scotland's pack had gone in off their feet.

Four minutes later Parks restored Scotland's advantage after a sustained period of pressure but despite some handbags amongst both sets of forwards the game failed to ignite as a contest.

It was Scotland who were enjoying the lion's share of possession and territory but they could not find the ideas nor the execution to breach the English defence.

Instead just after the half-hour mark, Wilkinson made it 6-6 with a penalty after Euan Murray was penalised for bringing down a scrum.

The scrum itself was proving a major headache for referee Marius Jonker with both front-rows ending up on the turf at regular intervals.

But the home crowd were given something to get their teeth into when, after going through the phases, Parks went back into the pocket and let fly with a drop goal which although far from textbook did just about split the posts.

Scotland's 9-6 halftime advantage was fully merited but Robinson would rue their inability to establish a bigger lead as Wilkinson, for the third time in the match, brought the scores level after lock Jim Hamilton's needless offence.

It proved the Toulon fly-half's last act in the game as a head injury saw him replaced by former Newcastle teammate Toby Flood who was soon joined off the bench by full-back Ben Foden.

Flood soon put England ahead for the first time in the match when Scotland drifted offside but almost inevitably Scotland were back on equal pegging on 51 minutes courtesy of the boot of Parks after James Haskell infringed.

A stop-start game came to a dead halt when in the 56th minute Ugo Monye and Kelly Brown came together in a sickening collision right by the English tryline.

Brown was subbed for Alan Macdonald while Monye had to be carried off in a neck brace with scrum-half Ben Youngs making his debut out of position on the wing.

After missing one long-range penalty, Flood opted to kick another to the corner. Scotland were penalised at the lineout and from the resulting 5m scrum, England tried - and failed - to force the game's first try.

Flood's looped pass was cut out by Max Evans but a penalty was coming anyway and Flood could not miss in front of the posts to make it 15-12.

For the second time in the match, Parks hit the post with a penalty attempt that rebounded into Scottish hands however with men out wide the fly-half misguidedly attempted to chip behind the English defence with numbers out wide.

Again a penalty had already been awarded by Jonker and Parks kicked Scotland level with ten minutes remaining.

Flood's penalty fell agonisingly short and saw his injury-time drop goal charged down which was perhaps a fitting result in an encounter high on passion and low on application.