“It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing,” Ian Rankin wrote in one of his Inspector Rebus novels. “Welcoming, but not very.” It is an assessment with which England might agree. “It is not that hostile!” Maro Itoje chuckled this week. “They like us here.” But recent trips to Auld Reekie have been rather gloomy for marauders from down south; a city of stone providing a handful of uncomfortable landings.
Four times England have visited Murrayfield since 2018; only once have they emerged with victory. Fortune has favoured a brave Scotland – remember Finn Russell’s arcing pass in 2018 – but there has been a faintly farcical feel about aspects of England’s attempts to conquer their hosts, from Luke Cowan-Dickie’s volleyball spike in 2022 to their most recent visit, where both Duhan van der Merwe and a slippery ball escaped English clutches all too easily.
