England have a chip on their shoulder. Pinned to a cuttings board at their training headquarters is every quote and every article to have suggested that the opposition “failed to turn up” or “were not at their best” as England compiled 12 consecutive victories. It is a narrative that annoys Steve Borthwick. He believes it denies his men due credit for shutting teams down and imposing upon them the “England way”.
A prime example would be from the birth of this winning run — England’s best sequence of results since 2016-17 — against France in round two of last year’s Six Nations. England grabbed a dramatic victory with a converted try from Elliot Daly after France had butchered three potential tries. French profligacy was the consistent take. England’s view was that the pressure applied by their scramble defence had forced those errors, and that they had made France play badly.
England need to follow up their Calcutta Cup triumph last season with a win at Murrayfield
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Borthwick, England’s head coach, has a point. Australia and New Zealand failed to fire a shot in their defeats by England in November at Twickenham. Argentina were trailing 17-3 before deciding to go down all guns blazing. Last week, poor hapless Wales crumbled with barely a whimper under the weight of the England way. There is a trend. Even when England were losing tight games through 2024, they were a hard team to put away.
Borthwick has built this theme of disrespect in camp over the past three weeks. It may be a management device, but it helps to reinforce to his players what their identity is, what their standards are and what their mission will be as they walk into the Murrayfield cauldron on Saturday for the 131st Calcutta Cup. This is a critical fixture in the evolution of this team, with England in need of a scalp away from home.
“Steve talks to us a lot about the English way,” Ollie Chessum, the Leicester Tigers lock, said. “Everyone likes to think that other teams just don’t turn up against England and that’s why the results have happened over the past 12 months. Because New Zealand didn’t turn up at Twickenham. Steve was like, ‘Actually we imposed the England game plan on those teams, and that’s why they struggled to impose theirs.’
“The real experts are the people in the room, the coaches, the players. They know what the expectations are, they know how all these games are going to be, regardless of what people outside have got to say. So, that’s been the main message: do things the England way.”
Ford will try to win the territorial battle with his varied kicking game
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What does that look like? What is the English way? Attack rules in the Gallagher Prem. Defence rules at Test level. One coach drew a comparison to football. If the club game is a throwback to Kevin Keegan’s football at Newcastle United — if you score three, we’ll score four — then Test rugby is more like George Graham and 1-0 to the Arsenal. Borthwick has sought to blend the two.
The performance against Wales last Saturday was almost the perfect illustration, bar a few blown chances after they had opened a 29-0 lead. Suffocate the opposition in defence to shut down their threats, win the territorial battle with an intelligent and varied kicking game, operate with pace, intensity and physicality on both sides of the ball and attack with precision to convert that pressure into points.
“It’s understanding and respecting the opposition, and having a plan to try and stop them,” George Ford, England’s fly half, explained. “That will give us the opportunities to bring the best of us. We are sure of our strengths. This is what we are going to do. This is us.”
Clearly, Scotland will have something to say about that. They have won the Calcutta Cup in four of the past five years. They have out-fought and out-thought England, who have not won in Edinburgh since 2020.
There is also a sense of desperation in the air. Gregor Townsend is under pressure as head coach after Scotland opened the championship with a defeat by Italy, which followed late-game collapses against New Zealand and Argentina in the autumn. For Sione Tuipulotu, the loss in Rome was the most gut-wrenching defeat of his career.
The likes of Pollock will not be fazed by the hostile atmosphere at Murrayfield
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“We understand the heat that our coach is under,” the Scotland captain said. “I’m not going to say, ‘We should get rid of our coach,’ because that’s not how I feel at all. Test rugby is about winning. The fixtures have been disappointing. We’re the ones in the changing room, and we’ve got to stick together through this time.
“We’re playing for our championship. We’re a desperate team at the moment, and I want to see that desperation in the players. I feel lucky that it is a Calcutta Cup match because we won’t lack any motivation and neither will they. It makes for a great game.”
England can expect a hostile reception at Murrayfield. Borthwick worked with his players before the Six Nations to prepare them for the increased volume of a Test match compared with a Prem game. The indications are that this England team have a different mentality. There are no hang-ups about the past. Henry Pollock lives for the now and feeds off the jeers. The way to engage the likes of Guy Pepper and Tom Roebuck is to excite them for the challenge ahead. Their reaction? “How cool is this? Where else in the world would you rather be?”
Even senior players with scars from Murrayfield have bought into that attitude. One established squad member said in a team meeting this week, “How good is it to be involved in something that people give a shit about?” Maro Itoje used the word “bulletproof” to describe his team’s mindset. “I want us to be the aggressors,” he said.
If England can achieve that, they will test Scotland’s psychology. They will test how united Scotland really are, and whether there is depth to Tuipulotu’s words. They will test how much the Scotland squad truly believe in the direction of travel under Townsend. They will test whether Scotland can balance their desperation with composure and accuracy.
England’s game plan is built on suffocating their opponents in defence
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The tactical clash between Finn Russell and George Ford will be fascinating. Ford’s kicking game was supreme against Wales. He is likely to kick long again and encourage Scotland to run it back into the teeth of the England chase, where players like Sam Underhill and Pepper will be loitering with intent. These exchanges are derided as vapid but they are a battle of wits and strategy, with the aim being to win territory or create improved attacking opportunities against broken-field defences; the kind of situations in which Ford and Russell both revel.
Russell has a record of unpicking England. Outside him are two other Test Lions in Tuipulotu and Huw Jones. To cage that danger, England will look to squeeze Scotland by controlling territory and then dominating the gainline collisions and the set piece, as Italy did in Rome last Saturday.
To emphasise that point, Richard Wigglesworth, England’s defence coach, began the week by introducing his England players to “The Dark Side”. Hours earlier, Seattle Seahawks had won the Super Bowl with a performance that bore all the hallmarks of England’s game plan. Wigglesworth had followed the Seahawks story all season because Aden Durde, the team’s defensive coordinator, hails from Enfield, north London.
Wigglesworth has studied Durde’s Seattle Seahawks with the England players
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Durde characterises his unit, who anointed themselves as The Dark Side on a mid-season bus trip, as “fast, physical, ball-hungry, who work as a collective”. The New England Patriots were duly strangled out of the game. Drake Maye, the Ford or Russell figure at quarterback, was rendered ineffectual. Seattle’s punter cranked up the territorial pressure by repeatedly drilling the ball to the corners as if he was a fly half. The Patriots did not score a point until the fourth quarter.
England have a slogan for their defence — MAD: make a difference— but they do not yet have a nickname. Wigglesworth, who hopes to meet up with Durde after the Six Nations, referenced The Dark Side to emphasise the importance of defence in winning titles and in making the opposition underperform.
The Englishman’s way worked in the Super Bowl — and it should also prevail at Murrayfield.
Calcutta Cup predictionsAlex Lowe, Rugby Correspondent
Scotland 12 England 24
On The Ruck podcast, we discussed which would be more important, history or form? Has to be the latter. Scotland are reliant on a recent record of dominance in the Calcutta Cup and an emotional reaction to their defeat by Italy. England, by contrast, have a superior pack and game-plan that can quell that resistance, shut down Scotland threats and drive them to victory. Will Kelleher, Deputy Rugby Correspondent
Scotland 21 England 24
I can’t see anything other than this being a tight one, with Scotland emotionally charged, and England having not won there since 2020. George Ford drop goal(s) and penalties to win it. Charlie Morgan, Senior Rugby Writer
Scotland 19 England 24
Scotland relish this fixture and will be better. Their scrum and line-out simply cannot be as bad again. But England are on a roll and, with Finn Russell seemingly subdued this season, should have enough.Stuart Barnes
Scotland 20 England 37
Confidence is the key. England’s 12 wins don’t guarantee a 13th consecutive win but it ensures confidence. Scotland are used to losing, England to winning – and improving performance at the same time. The more I think about it, the more a Scotland win looks a substantial shock. If England have joined the big boys — as the evidence suggests — it is worth remembering Scotland don’t beat them.Our rugby writers pick their combined team