The most decisive factor in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup match can be summed up in one word: belief. England have to believe in their blitz defensive system, they have to show confidence in it even when mistakes happen and they have to keep doing that for 80 minutes. Because they can be certain that Finn Russell has belief in bucket-loads and an uncanny ability to move on from mistakes in an instant.
Make no mistake, mastering a brand new defensive system is difficult, all the more so in the middle of a Six Nations championship. I first encountered a blitz defence at Harlequins in 2005 and that was the year we were relegated. There were other factors that contributed but the way that our defence performed was certainly one of them.
