Six Nations 2018: Gregor Townsend reveals Scotland DESPERATE to beat England
IF THE CALCUTTA CUP really does mean nothing more to England than any other fixture in their tunnel-visioned trudge towards the World Cup, then the same is not true of Scotland.
The whiff of expectation surrounding rugby union’s longest-running rivalry was intoxicating at Murrayfield on Wednesday.
Part of that heightened sense can be put down to a fear of what could happen if Eddie Jones’s side get on a roll in the same way that they did at Twickenham last year when England routed their oldest enemies 61-21.
But it also remains true north of the border that even without a win over England for a decade, this is the fixture above all others.
“It does have extra,” said Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend. “I grew up watching these games in the late Eighties and early Nineties and I saw all the passion that was involved in these fixtures.
“I was lucky enough to play in a few and it’s certainly the fixture that brings more focus and more edge. You understand how much it means to the public.
“In 2000, we lost every game in that campaign but we won the final game against England and it was such a huge boost to the country. The other four defeats seemed to be forgotten.
“We know what it means to our supporters and what it means to our players. We can see that in how they’ve trained this week.”
This will be Townsend’s first Calcutta Cup match as head coach having turned down a place on the Lions management team to take charge last summer. His calculated pre-match jab at England’s offside transgressions, delivered with a knowing smile, suggests he is learning quickly.
Scotland’s progress graph since the Borders magician took over has been erratic. If England are by the byword for consistency, Scotland are the polar opposite.
A brilliant win in Australia was followed by defeat in Fiji then the promise of an excellent autumn was wiped out by a 34-7 pummelling in Wales. The nature of the reverse vindicated Jones’s observation at the tournament launch that Scotland under Townsend were a “side to side” team.
We know what it means to our supporters and what it means to our players.
It was not meant as a compliment even if the former Northampton playmaker pretended it was on Wednesday.
“You have to go forward in rugby,” acknowledged Townsend. “But there are different ways of doing that.
“If you go side to side you won’t go forward and I wouldn’t say that is something we like doing but we certainly want to attack space.”
The 32-26 win over France a fortnight ago gave a more measured depiction of where Scotland are at nine months into the Townsend era.
It was a good win but six points better than France does not put them ahead of England so Townsend knows he will have to coax something extra special out of his side on Saturday.
“Whenever they’ve come up here, in my experience they’ve been a good team. Now they’re number two in the world,” he said.
“They’ve won a huge number of games in the last two years so we’re perfectly aware that we’re playing one of the best teams - a team in form – and we have to be at our very best to challenge them.”
It is a Herculean task but Townsend at least had the advantage of being able to name an unchanged starting line-up on Wednesday with a significant addition to the bench in the neckless shape of WP Nel who broke his arm against Samoa in November.
The scrum strongman is joined by second row Tim Swinson and centre Nick Grigg who are also added to the replacements.
Townsend, perhaps in sympathy with a kindred spirit, resisted the pressure to drop playmaker Finn Russell after two error-ridden displays although he may be replaced as touch kicker by Stuart Hogg.
“Finn was very good in the second half. He was a big part of how we were on the front foot against France and he has shown that in training over the past week,” said Townsend.
“Physically he’s in good shape and he’s controlling our attack. He’s been involved in the decision making – so he seems to be in a very good place.”
So too Townsend. Routine as this weekend may be to England, it is anything but to him and his players.
Six Nations 2018
Emotion may not amount to a hill of beans when all is reckoned up on Saturday evening but it has done before in this fixture. England, manifestly the superior unit, should take note of that fact at the very least.
Scotland: Hogg; Seymour, Jones, Horne, Maitland; Russell, Laidlaw; Reid, McInally, Berghan, Gilchrist, J Gray, Barclay (capt), Watson, Wilson. Replacements: Lawson, Bhatti, Nel, Swinson, Denton, Price, Grigg, Kinghorn.
Former Scotland centre Matt Scott will return to Edinburgh in the summer after two seasons with Gloucester.