… And so a new Six Nations week Test begins with three huge matches at the end of it.
For France a first Test in the Championship outside of Paris awaits. Marseille will be their home this Friday night however the question lingering over that fixture is just how will they cope without the front-line players that have been dropped due to disciplinary reasons?
Saturday will start with Ireland and Wales clashing in Dublin. Will Wales continue where they left off against England, pressurising and pushing their opponents? Will Ireland find a new level again after brushing aside Italy in Round 2?
Then, last but not least there’s the Calcutta Cup. The Cup that has been be apple of both England’s and Scotland’s eyes since 1879 and the Cup that’s been held by England since the 2009 Six Nations Championship.
England are the ‘bookies favourites’ and that’s a statement that I think all will agree with whether they wear the blue of Scotland, the white of England or are of a neutral persuasion. Why? Well, it comes down to the fact that Eddie Jones’ side are much further ahead in their collective development than their opponents and as a unit house greater firepower within their squad.
Before I continue to start looking ahead at Saturday’s encounter, I’d just like to reflect back on England’s Round 2 meeting with Wales.
It was another enthralling Test match and one that indeed tested Eddie Jones side. ‘A win built around a lot of courage and belief’ were the head coach’s words after the game and that was spot on. My own words on the final whistle were ‘the resilience of England to secure that victory was herculean’ and watching the game back again I stand by them fully. It was another encounter that England had to win the hard way and Tests like that are simply invaluable for a side’s progression. They are the types of Tests that teams must learn to win as they build towards a key competition and win more than once.
Within the 80 minutes itself the axis of George Ford and Owen Farrell excelled and highlighted, not for the first time, the significant competitive edge that having two exceptional play-makers and rugby experts on the field delivers. I fully expect the same dominance from the duo at Murrayfield.
Elsewhere England’s back-three, and Mike Brown especially, highlighted that loose kicking will be punished and having worked on the Scotland game the day after Finn Russell will need to deliver a more accurate kicking game out of hand to avoid his side being punished.
Defensively, as mentioned, England were intense and ferocious. It’s a key characteristic of every performance now and something that once again I believe will cause Scotland issues this weekend. More on that in the pre-game preview.
So what of the two squads that assembled together to prepare for the Calcutta Cup?
Well, within England’s squad Nathan Hughes is being pushed with ‘tough sessions’ to find his match fitness and should slot into that No 8 jersey. Joe Marler is back following his suspension and Gabriel Ibitoye is named an apprentice player. If you haven’t seen Ibitoye’s try for England U20s then when you finish reading this take a look HERE.
Gregor Townsend has added six to his squad. WP Nel and Zander Fagerson are both back in training; the former has been ‘training for a few weeks’ according to their head coach whilst the latter is slightly further behind. Elsewhere, familiar Premiership faces Tim Visser and Matt Scott come into the backline mix.
As far as I can see the Met Office is predicting and dry evening for Saturday’s match. It looks crisp and a tad chilly but that won't bother either side one jot. The conditions currently predicted should allow us to see the best of both sides as Scotland will look to feed off their home crowd and play at a pace and tempo that they love. For England it could also be an opportunity to really see them let rip going forward after the drizzly day at Twickenham Stadium wasn't overly conducive to that.
Personally I expect this week to be an altogether different one to the one that we encountered ahead of Round 2. Test weeks against Wales have an added crackle to them and this time around I believe that it could just be a slightly quieter and more closed lead into the Calcutta Cup.
Gregor Townsend will show his hand on Wednesday at 12pm before Eddie Jones' match-day squad will be announced on Thursday. England’s full squad will come out at 9.15am and a little later on in the day I'll be bringing you the head coach’s thoughts regarding selection and after that some further pre-match analysis talking points ahead of this Round 3 encounter.
England Squad
Backs: Mike Brown, Nathan Earle, Gabriel Ibitoye*, Harry Mallinder, Jonny May, Denny Solomona, Anthony Watson, Danny Care, Owen Farrell, George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Jack Nowell, Ben Te'o, Richard Wigglesworth.
Forwards: Charlie Ewels, James Haskell, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Courtney Lawes, Joe Launchbury, Chris Robshaw, Sam Underhill, Dan Cole, Jamie George, Dylan Hartley, Joe Marler, Mako Vunipola, Harry Williams.
Scotland Squad
Backs: Mark Bennett, Nick Grigg, Chris Harris, Stuart Hogg, Pete Horne, Ruaridh Jackson, Huw Jones, Blair Kinghorn, Greig Laidlaw, Sean Maitland, Ali Price, Henry Pyrgos, Finn Russell, Tommy Seymour, Matt Scott, Tim Visser,
Forwards: John Barclay , Simon Berghan, Jamie Bhatti, David Denton, Cornell Du Preez, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Luke Hamilton, Rob Harley, Scott Lawson, James Malcolm, Stuart McInally, WP Nel, Gordon Reid, Josh Strauss, Tim Swinson, Ben Toolis, Hamish Watson, Jon Welsh, Ryan Wilson.
