{"id":384905,"date":"2026-01-22T21:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384905\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:30:30","slug":"murrayfield-is-test-of-england-progress-top-teams-dont-lose-to-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384905\/","title":{"rendered":"Murrayfield is test of England progress. Top teams don\u2019t lose to Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would seem that, as far as the 2026 Six Nations is concerned, all roads lead to France. The 8.10pm finale to the tournament on March 14 is no coincidence. It\u2019s the blockbuster, the one for which ITV has paid the big bucks. <\/p>\n

England have won their past 11 Test matches since losing to Ireland in last season\u2019s first Six Nations<\/a> Saturday. Expectations are great. England expects. Anything but a grand slam would be a failure. That\u2019s what Stephen Jones, my dear friend, would be writing. God bless, I can see him pounding the keyboards.<\/p>\n

In the context of the forthcoming tournament, he is quite possibly right. Even with the borderline lunacy of omitting the broken-field genius of Damien Penaud<\/a>, France have the depths of talent to catch fire against a grand-slam seeking England in Saint-Denis and extinguish English dreams. They have the players to beat any side in the world \u2014 including South Africa \u2014 in front of their anthem-singing supporters.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

England scraped past Scotland during the 2025 Six Nations with a 16-15 win at Twickenham<\/p>\n

BOB BRADFORD\/GETTY<\/p>\n

Matthieu Jalibert is up there with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as one of the world\u2019s most dazzling fly halves. Romain Ntamack is injured, so the possibility of France\u2019s best No10 playing grows, although there\u2019s always Thomas Ramos as another option to keep the Bordeaux man sitting on the sidelines \u2014 or watching from a wine bar in his home city.<\/p>\n

France have the players to beat anyone. I\u2019ll say it again. But in Fabien Galthi\u00e9, do they have the coach? I digress. Whatever the state of France, come the 15th and final match of the 2026 Six Nations, they could beat any England team, no matter how good.<\/p>\n

Indeed, were England<\/a> to go there in search of what would be a 16th straight win, and a grand slam, defeat would gall Steve Borthwick\u2019s team but it wouldn\u2019t set them back on the way to next year\u2019s World Cup. In 2002 Serge Betsen hunted Jonny Wilkinson down. England learnt their lessons, won the grand slam the next season and the World Cup in November, beating France in the semi-final en route to the northern hemisphere\u2019s only global success to date.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000002595574\"<\/p>\n

Betsen, right, gave Wilkinson a tough time in 2002<\/p>\n

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND<\/p>\n

To some supporters the very thought of a \u201cgood\u201d loss is anathema, but to a coach with global aspirations the more bitter the pill, the better the long-term prognosis can prove \u2014 think Betsen in 2002. The acid test for England \u2014 the game that will prove whether they are in a position to hunt down the dominant Springboks \u2014 is Scotland.<\/p>\n

February 14 is the afternoon when the temperature of Borthwick\u2019s England will be tested. England may have ended their four-match losing streak against the Scots with victory at Twickenham last season, but Scotland were still the better team. It is time for England to not only beat Gregor Townsend\u2019s team but to beat them well, in Edinburgh, if they are to prove themselves. The comprehensive defeat of New Zealand in the autumn needs to be backed up against the yardstick of Scotland.<\/p>\n

Given that Ireland must travel to Twickenham, Wales are in a state of rugby civil war and Italy are improving but not that quickly, defeating Scotland is the key that opens the door to a grand-slam shot for England in Paris. But it is more important than a step on the way. It is the game that measures the real improvement. Or not.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s win was little more than a sigh of relief for the men in white. That was an England team taking their first tentative steps towards their position now as contenders for second-best team in the world. When Ireland were scrapping with the big boys \u2014 before losing their past four games against South Africa, New Zealand and France \u2014 they were putting Scotland away with an intense excellence. What England would have given for the overwhelming quality of their 32-18 win at Murrayfield in 2025. <\/p>\n

That was Ireland\u2019s 11th consecutive victory over their Celtic rivals. New Zealand have never lost to Scotland. Since becoming world champions in 2019 the Springboks have faced them three times and won by 15 points twice and then by 17 last time out in 2024. France have won the teams\u2019 past four Six Nations clashes. You don\u2019t lose to Scotland if you are at \u2014 or near \u2014 the top of the tree.<\/p>\n

England have been grubbing around at the roots. It is true, though, that the Calcutta Cup comes with a rivalry that adds an extra spice to these fixtures. Perhaps this justifies England\u2019s awful record compared to the world\u2019s other leading Test teams?<\/p>\n

On that basis, how do we assess the rivalry when England were building towards their solitary World Cup triumph? In 2001 England won 43-3. The next year they kept Scotland to a mere three points again but \u201conly\u201d scored 29, as Jason Robinson ran amok in Edinburgh. In 2003 the result was another rout, this time 40-9.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

England need their attacking threats, such as Tommy Freeman, to take inspiration from Robinson\u2019s 2002 display<\/p>\n

PATRICK KHACHFE\/GETTY<\/p>\n

England were ambitious. Brian Ashton, the backs coach, had ignited that ambition and with it an until-then unseen England attacking game. In 2002 I clearly remember the shrug of heads in a post-match press conference when Sir Clive Woodward refused to get carried away by the 50 points England had put on Wales because the opposition lacked quality. Honesty wasn\u2019t the done thing, but the commitment to excellence was necessary if England were going to win a World Cup.<\/p>\n

France on the final night? It could go either way, but it is time to set that scoreboard ticking in Scotland. It is a glorious opportunity. Scotland, with Glasgow Warriors the second-best team behind Bordeaux B\u00e8gles in the Champions Cup, are deserving of respect from England. Even the most begrudging critic of Finn Russell knows he can run and manage a game, as shown by his beautiful Calcutta Cup performances in recent years.<\/p>\n

Scotland should be no pushover for any but the very best. One almighty shove in Edinburgh, and it is time to make England contenders for the World Cup, win or lose in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would seem that, as far as the 2026 Six Nations is concerned, all roads lead to France.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-384905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}