The Bounce Back - England vs. Scotland (RBS 6 Nations)

Shortly the Calcutta Cup will return to Twickenham Stadium for another year and to date England’s home record against the Scots is an imperious one having won every single fixture against their local rivals in London since 1983. Now without appearing to be too arrogant, for we all know that English arrogance has been a hot topic this week, I for one expect them to retain that delightful record on Saturday afternoon. However, I also expect that Scotland will be a handful and will make England work for every single point that they score.  

My confidence is not based on pure patriotism or un-sustained optimism instead it rides on the pertinent point that England let themselves down in Dublin, they did not deliver to their capabilities and on home soil I expect them to. Faltering in Dublin has left a strong, nagging and uncomfortable feeling of disappointment, a feeling that is shared by every single English player and coach. Graham Rowntree admitted it took him until Monday of this week to get over the defeat and that prolonged amount of time to compute what happened was shared by the players. The English feeling of disappointment is also coupled with an even stronger emotion from the players; frustration. The frustration is driven by knowing how much better they are than their output in Dublin portrayed and it stems from the fact that not only did they fail to execute their meticulous preparation and analysis, they were unable to turn things around during the game. England’s loss in Ireland has emotionally fired them up and really got under Stuart Lancaster's team's skin.

Lawes' last HQ action

The reintroduction to the starting XV of Mike Brown and Courtney Lawes adds a tremendous amount to the side. Mike Brown is a fearless competitor, as he has shown time and time again and has the ability to single handedly change games. His solidity under the high ball provides reassurance and his aggression and out and out attacking threats should scare Scotland. Courtney, like Mike, brings multiple attributes to the Twickenham party; his lineout calling ability and subsequent security in that area of the game is vital alongside his almost unrivalled physicality and intensity. Elsewhere the familiar faces of this 6 Nations tournament all must step up and deliver; dominance at the breakdown, a pin point kicking game and intense scrummaging are all non-negotiable outputs for Saturday's match. 

Switching to focus to the visitors; Vern Cotter’s Scotland will know all about the aforementioned feelings of frustration and disappointment. The Scots' rugby output as has sky rocketed in recent months, they have potent attacking threats across their back line and have sured up their set pieces beyond recognition. However, right now, after three rounds of RBS 6 Nations action, they find themselves in a familiar position at the bottom of the table and that will hurt. Andy Farrell described the situation perfectly at Twickenham;

‘We’ve got a wounded animal coming that was beaten by a side that they wanted to beat so it makes it dangerous for us. We can see what type of game is coming, it will be an intense feisty, fiery one, and they’ll try and stamp their authority on the game. A 6-2 bench, the introduction of Hamilton and Denton, all of the boys know what Jim brings to the party and what Denton does, so it is pretty obvious what is coming our way.’

This game means a tremendous amount to Cotter's men, if Stuart Hogg’s statements around respect, are shared by the whole squad then the Scots believe that England don’t take them seriously and that coupled with the frustration of losing to the Italians has the power to ignite a performance beyond what we have seen to date. Finn Russell's return is timely and an essential one to provide that stability from the middle and the ability to push them into the right areas on the pitch. With, Hogg, Seymour and Bennett Scotland they house their own dynamic threats and men England must not take their eyes off for a second.

An intense week at Pennyhill Park

This week, every single member of England's coaching team have stated that this week  has been an intense training week. Stuart described how he had to calm things down a bit when the 15 on 15 boiled over slightly and Andy Farrell's assessment was that training has been 'sharp, on point and had a bit of an edge to it'. This all bodes well for Saturday afternoon, prior to kick off no thought should be given to what is going on in Cardiff instead the focus should be on an English performance. This weekend, a failure to turn up or a failure to deliver to their potential is not an option, instead it is time for England to show exactly what they are made of and remind us all of their excellence against the strongest Scottish side that they will have faced in years.