Former England flanker Courtney Lawes has claimed that Scotland proved his point by defeating the Auld Enemy in last weekend\u2019s Calcutta Cup clash.<\/p>\n
Gregor Townsend\u2019s men arguably produced their best performance since last year\u2019s encounter with the Red Rose by securing a dominant 31-20 triumph over Steve Borthwick\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
It was their fifth victory in six against England<\/a> with their display a far cry from the one they put in versus Italy in the Six Nations<\/a> the week prior.<\/p>\n Before the game at Murrayfield, Lawes claimed that Scotland<\/a> only raise their game when they take on the English and judging by that result, he may well be right.<\/p>\n Result and performance \u2018reinforces\u2019 Lawes<\/p>\n \u201cI was impressed with Scotland in a lot of ways but their performance just reinforced the point I made last week: how can you play like that against England every year but lose to Italy?\u201d he wrote in his Times<\/a> column.<\/p>\n \u201cI like a lot of the boys in their team as people. They\u2019ve got a load of really good players. But any team can get up for one game a season. You\u2019ve beaten England. Well done. But are you going to finish ahead of them in the table?\u201d<\/p>\n Lawes also highlighted a comment made by the under pressure Scotland boss Townsend<\/a> in the aftermath of the game.<\/p>\n The 52-year-old stated that the supporters had \u201csomething to smile about for the next 12 months\u201d, which suggested that the Scots do indeed place more emphasis on the England match.<\/p>\n It was more likely a slip of the tongue from Townsend, with Scotland surely having greater ambitions, but Lawes felt that it was a telling moment.<\/p>\n \u201cGregor Townsend said after the win that Scotland had put a smile on peoples\u2019 faces for 12 months. That sums up the mentality,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d want to say, \u2018Can you reproduce the quality of Saturday\u2019s performance against Ireland in a fixture Scotland have not won since 2017?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ex-England star \u2018not worried\u2019 about Ireland as he delivers message ahead of Twickenham clash<\/a><\/p>\n England\u2019s issues<\/p>\n While Scotland were hugely impressive, England never really got started and struggled in a number of areas.<\/p>\n Even their supposed strengths were negated by the hosts, who managed to dominate the aerial game and use it to create opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cEngland weren\u2019t at the races at Murrayfield. It is easy to see what went wrong. Scotland essentially used England\u2019s tactics against them: launch high balls, win them back and put pace on the attack,\u201d Lawes added.<\/p>\n