The partnership England must break to end their Calcutta Cup hoodoo
From 1991 to 2017, England played Scotland 29 times and won 25 of them, with one draw. It was red-rose domination.
Since 2018, and coinciding with Gregor Townsend’s reign as Scotland’s head coach, the form has flipped and the Scots have four wins and a draw in the six meetings, including victories in the last three in 2021, 2022 and 2023. How do England go about reversing that trend in Edinburgh on Saturday?
Ben Earl, the No 8, has been there and done it – his England debut as a 15-minute substitute in their most recent Calcutta Cup success, 13-6 at Murrayfield in 2020. Earl latched onto the driving Ellis Genge as the prop scored the only try.
“That was a blueprint of how to win against a very good Scottish team,” Earl said. “I distinctly remember us box-kicking a hell of a lot, and chasing really hard and scrapping for everything. And then when you get the chance to win penalties, with or without the ball, making the most of that.”
Earl said England’s head coach Steve Borthwick is “not expecting rabbits out of hats.”
Kicking game
Off the tee, England’s kicking coach Kevin Sinfield has promised fly-half George Ford’s fidgeting forfeit of a conversion against Wales will not happen again. As to open play, Scotland don’t mind a spot of kick tennis so Ford will need to be on point.
England habitually use grubbers at close range or Ford’s spiral bombs from further out to breed confusion. Ben White, the Scotland scrum-half, gets good length on his box kicks, and these will be chased by a third back-three combo in three matches, as Blair Kinghorn and Kyle Rowe return to join Duhan van der Merwe, two-try hero of Twickenham last year.
There is no try threat from the injured Darcy Graham, but this is a good unit, and Van der Merwe’s kick-chase in Scotland’s narrow loss to France two weeks ago was a feature. England must beat the big South African-born wing to the punch.
Physicality and leadership
Speaking of which, Scotland are lovely to watch at times, thanks to the cohesion of the squad being drawn mainly from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and settled under Townsend – they know where each other are, with an intuition that England might envy.
But the Scots lack a heavyweight hammer on the gainline, and when the pre-match strains of “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” have faded, England will want to hurt Scotland bodies with their carries, while denying them soft shoulders in defence.
Sinfield has backed bench forward George Martin to “leave a mark on somebody”, and scrum-half Danny Care said flanker Ethan Roots “just wants to run through people and tackle people.”
Watch for replacement Chandler Cunningham-South, when he comes on, swapping in and out with Earl at No 8 to maximise his physicality, and maybe pressure Scotland into the calamities of their second half in Wales, when the penalty count shot up and they had two yellow cards.
Scotland’s openside flanker Rory Darge loves to sniff a turnover, but is set for just his third Murrayfield match in the Six Nations. His calling cards are tenacity and a sidestep, not physicality, and Darge admits he never expected to be co-captain.
England have a captain in Jamie George whose way of mourning the recent, shock passing of his mother with lung cancer is to proudly continue leading the team.
Containing Scotland’s playmakers
So much has been said and written about Scotland’s fly-half and co-captain Finn Russell, but if there is a second most important player, it is inside centre Sione Tuipulotu, the 26-year-old with 24 caps who is influential in the same way as Jordie Barrett for New Zealand and Bundee Aki for Ireland.
The England blitz defence must stop the 16st 5lbs Tuipolotu when he carries as first receiver and prevent an offload to Russell, who often loops round for the out-the-back pass.
Expect to see the returning Ollie Lawrence or a back-rower battering into Tuipolotu’s eyeline off first phase, while Henry Slade and the wings push up to cut off any wide pass by Russell. The latter offloads excellently, so England need every player alert – as Care said: “You could be the 10th man in the defensive line and thinking you’re all right for a phase and have a breather and then the ball is coming to you.”
Scotland sometimes go wide early to outside centre Huw Jones – if they do find an edge, the onus is on George Furbank to justify his selection ahead of Freddie Steward as England’s full-back and “shut the gate” beyond his wings. White was caught by the Welsh running from deep, so again England’s new blitz can get results – if they stay organised.
Scotland have elements of a blitz themselves when Jones and the openside wing push up and in; England will hope Lawrence can punch or pass through it. France were able to slice through the Scots’ sliding defence after a quickly taken line-out.
Set-piece is crucial to capitalise on
Zander Fagerson has been a tighthead rock, and while the Scotland pack is far from the heaviest, the scrum has been a platform for Russell to run or kick.
Bench prop Joe Marler might have a brief to destabilise Fagerson if the home No 3 plays a lot of minutes. Scotland’s reserve front row of Alec Hepburn, Ewan Ashman and Elliot Millar-Mills all have Premiership connections; the inside knowledge either way could be crucial. Care is bound to have spotted how France caught White delivering slowly from an early maul.
Embrace the atmosphere
England are on a decent roll of eight wins in nine matches, albeit by beating Argentina (twice), Japan, Chile, Samoa, Fiji, Italy and Wales, and they say they will embrace the Murrayfield hostility.
Care said: “It is never easy, they make everything difficult from the bus ride in, with the bagpipes to make you walk a bit further, but I love it.”
We’ll no doubt hear the Proclaimers “walk a thousand miles” at some point, but England have their version.
“Felix [Jones] has gone through about 1000 line-outs Scotland ran in the last 10 years. The homework has been done,” said Sinfield.
