There has been the usual fighting talk from both camps in the build-up to the Calcutta Cup, Kevin Sinfield, the skills and kicking coach, detailing England’s plan to “kick the door down” at Murrayfield and Pieter de Villiers, the scrum coach, countering with Scotland’s belief that they can not only match but outgun the visiting pack at the set piece.
Reading these comments from coaches, players on both sides will have shrugged their shoulders and perhaps even rolled their eyes, but the simple fact is that Scotland have nothing to fear from England in the physical exchanges these days.
It was a very different dynamic when I first came into the fixture in the early 2010s. For my very first game against England, they had guys like Dylan Hartley, Louis Deacon, Steve Borthwick, James Haskell, Joe Worsley and Nick Easter in the starting pack with Steve Thompson, Courtney Lawes and Lewis Moody all coming off the bench.
They were big, physical, imposing and played in that mould that I had always imagined represented English rugby. A big heavy pack with an intelligent conductor — in this case Jonny Wilkinson — marshalling them from behind. They just ground you down and we didn’t have the physical or mental resilience to stay in the game long enough.
They always seemed to manage to get their noses in front by hook or crook, and we were at a stage where we just couldn’t create tries. Our attack at that time lacked the cohesion and structure to provide options to isolate and target weaker and tired defenders. We had very little attack, and what we did do was very easy to defend against.
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It never really felt like we were threatening them, and they always wore us down. Our side didn’t have it in us to consistently produce moments of individual brilliance like Finn Russell’s pass in 2018 or Duhan van der Merwe’s try at Twickenham last year, which have proved so crucial in recent encounters.
I never went into a game against England with an inferiority complex, but you were painfully aware of the weight and power coming through, and they always seemed that bit tighter and more organised than we were.
It wasn’t like playing South Africa, where you knew exactly what was coming at breakdowns and mauls. Your only solution was to brace and wait for the inevitable. There wasn’t the same pure physicality, but you couldn’t get near the ball at times. England were so well drilled. I never felt like they were running you ragged, but they could squeeze you in ways that other teams probably couldn’t.
The England pack haven’t had anything like the same reputation in recent years, and while I was really impressed by the manner in which they found ways to win at the World Cup, you wouldn’t say they are physically dominating teams.
The gain line was where Scotland suffered their two pool defeats by South Africa and Ireland, and you can see it has become a real focus for them as a result. In the first halves of the win over Wales and frustrating defeat by France, Gregor Townsend’s men have shown the presence and technical quality to feel they can have the better of the physical battle again.
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If you look at the stats for gain-line dominance and post-contact metres, Scotland — and in particular Sione Tuipulotu — are performing better than the vast majority of the men they will encounter on Saturday.
Ollie Lawrence will give England that bit of ballast, and the ability to make consistent dents in the home defence from midfield, but if Scotland can get the physical side right again, the softer part of their game, the lighter touches, will become even more devastating as a result. Rugby is a simple game, or least it can be. Power beats all, or so it used to. Teams that are able to harness that power and ally it to an organised attacking structure become very hard to beat.
This is the acid test of Scotland’s new-found physicality, which might sound strange after me stating that this is not a vintage England pack. But the uptick in Scotland’s physical output has come against a Wales side who, of all the Six Nations teams, lack that outright power, and a French outfit who didn’t have Antoine Dupont to knit it all together by providing the attacking structure.
What Scotland do on the gain line will have a significant bearing on the breakdown contest. Scotland have had so much joy on the floor in recent Calcutta Cup encounters. When that happens it’s a sign that you’re getting plenty else spot on, too.
Sometimes, the turnover opportunities just appear — all it takes is someone slipping or getting nudged going into the breakdown. If you get a couple of those in a game, they can be huge turning points.
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Our 25-13 win in 2018 was like that. England had a couple of scrums on our line, were pounding away in our 22, but we managed to get in and get turnovers. The pass that Finn threw for that brilliant Sean Maitland try came off the back of one.
Myself and Hamish Watson had said pre-game that there would probably be opportunities to get in and compete. With Nathan Hughes, Chris Robshaw and Lawes in the England back row, we knew we could capitalise on the speed and considerable height difference we had — and we also knew that, with Nigel Owens refereeing, we could push the envelope that bit more and play on his reputation for rewarding people looking for turnovers.
We tried our luck early and got away with it. It wasn’t even a conversation thereafter: Hamish and I just knew to keep doing it. England were leaving space and time for us to get in there.
Hamish has had huge success in this fixture over the years. No Scotsman will ever forget him claiming that epic turnover then booting the ball into the stand to seal a historic win at Twickenham in 2021, another game that demonstrated how success at the breakdown is a by-product of physical dominance on the gain line.
Rory Darge is the man at No 7 these days, and what a player he is. He’s always sniffing, and his decision-making is great for one so young. He understands and reads the game exceptionally well, and now he has Jamie Ritchie back beside him.
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Starting out, I could never have imagined a scenario when beating England would almost — almost — become expected as it has been for the past six years. I was meant to play in the 2008 game, which we won 15-9, but was suffering the effects of having sliced off the top of my finger in a bizarre accident the previous week.
I had been sitting on my sofa at home, enjoying a glass of wine with some friends, when Andrew Kelly, the Edinburgh hooker, plonked himself down without looking where he was placing his considerable behind. My hand — and the wine glass held in it — were directly beneath him. The glass shattered and so did my Calcutta Cup dream.
I was still 24th man against England, in case of an emergency, and I recall standing outside the stadium just before kick-off in the pouring rain, waiting for my wife, Hayley, to pick me up and get me out of there. I was absolutely devastated to be missing the game, and that feeling only increased as I sat in a pub surrounded by fans going crazy as Mike Blair and the boys got the job done.
Wins against England were so rare back then that I genuinely felt my one chance might have come and gone. I could never have envisaged this kind of winning run.
