They have been watching plenty of X-rated video in the Scotland camp, not just the lowlights of their last game against Italy but also a salutary reminder of how badly they played the last time they faced England. If that double dose of horror did not give them sleepless nights, nothing will.
As Jonathan Humphreys, the forwards coach, admitted, the point was to underline that, although circumstances were different, a lot of the calamitous, game-changing mistakes were the same a year apart. The head coach has changed and the atmosphere around the squad has been transformed, but the penalty count and lapses in concentration are identical.
It is one reason why, for all the brave words from the players about winning at Twickenham for the first time since 1983, it is hard to see, at the subconscious level that really matters, that many of them can really believe their own spin.
Only seven of the starting XV this afternoon began the match a year ago, but it does not seem to matter too much who is wearing the Scotland shirt, watching them is like Groundhog Day as they repeat the same mistakes year after year, coach after coach. Humphreys is adamant that it is changing, but admits progress is slow.
“It was just about not repeating the same errors since that game [against England],” Humphreys said. “We have a young group who need to understand that being on the wrong end of the penalty count does exert a lot of pressure on yourself. How do we eradicate that and make sure we are a little more disciplined in those areas?
Advertisement
“We believe we are making progress as a group and we need to continue that. It was obviously a setback against Italy and we need to make amends. We look at the processes, at ways of dealing with certain scenarios and try to get the experience in a short amount of time to do that.”
If the players really need any extra motivation for a Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham, the double helping of embarrassment from their most recent outing and their previous match against England must have provided it.
“There is always a balance,” Humphreys said. “If you go into a game with just passion and heated fervour, that lasts maybe 15 or 20 minutes. It is about the technicalities of what you are trying to do. That’s the thing about getting it right. I don’t think we got that wrong last year, it was just the systematic errors, which are still in our game at the moment, that we need to learn from and eradicate. We need to get smarter as a group.
“England are a very physical side, based on Graham Rowntree’s time at Leicester and Dorian West’s time at Northampton. The game will be based around scrummaging for penalties and driving lineouts. We defended 19 driving lineouts at Murrayfield last year so we are aware of the strengths and how England want to play. It is about getting the technicalities right in how we deal with that.”