England’s players normally look forward to a Calcutta Cup examination at Murrayfield with about as much enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist. At best it tends to be uncomfortable, at worst it’s grip-the-chair-and-pray time. And that’s before they are wheeled out into the freezing rain and the hygienist produces a set of bagpipes to enhance the experience even further.
So it was more than a little unnerving to listen to Steve Borthwick talking about his team’s genuine enthusiasm for what lies in store. Never mind all the recurring pain they have endured in Edinburgh in recent years, with three defeats in their past four visits. This time they are heading north in a strikingly different mood, flashing the kind of confident pearly white smile usually reserved for Love Island contestants.
Having been born in Cumbria, Borthwick knows more than most about the specifics of cross-border rivalry and the serious ambush potential. It remains his firm belief, nevertheless, that his England team are taking the high road to Scotland this time for a number of reasons. Twelve successive wins, including the 48-7 victory against Wales last Saturday, is far from the only one.
Gone are the days, it seems, when English sides tiptoed apprehensively into town. Of course they respect their opponents, having shared a dressing room with many of them on the British & Irish Lions tour last summer, but since losing 30-21 at Murrayfield two years ago there has been a marked shift in attitude. When England head into a hostile environment nowadays they view it as an opportunity rather than something to fear.
They have already won well in Wales and Argentina and come desperately close in France and New Zealand in the past two years. Borthwick reckons the heightened challenge of winning away is now among his squad’s primary motivations: “As you’re coaching you’re trying to understand more about the players and what makes them tick … and they absolutely love these kind of games.”
Borthwick is even beginning to wonder if his players’ minds are more concentrated on hostile territory than they are at Twickenham. “We have a lower penalty count away from Allianz Stadium than we do at home, which is an interesting one,” said Borthwick, who has raised that statistic with referees in his quest for a rational answer to the conundrum. “Whilst we won the penalty count [against Wales] on Saturday it was still too high.”
Partly as a result of the 12 penalties his team conceded, the clips the head coach prioritised after the win last Saturday did not highlight Henry Arundell’s hat‑trick or England’s other four tries but the quietly unobtrusive contribution of Jamie George, who finds himself on the bench this week with Maro Itoje and Luke Cowan-Dickie restored to the captaincy and No 2 shirt respectively.
The video footage revealed that George had loads of effective game involvements but did not concede a single penalty, thus denying Wales an easy foothold in the contest. Borthwick’s subsequent challenge to his players was simple: “Can you compete as hard as that and play in a way that doesn’t give the opposition entry into our half and doesn’t give them any points?”
In other words, cut off Scotland’s oxygen supply and life will grow significantly harder for the hosts. The only unknown is precisely how the Scots will proceed tactically. “It’s going to be interesting how they play,” Borthwick said. “When they move the ball, they’ve got such incredible players. Are they going to play that wide game or are they going to bring the kicking blend?”
Either way, England are intent on converting a higher proportion of the chances they create than they managed against Wales. “The number of line breaks we made at the weekend was one of the highest we’ve had in a long time,” Borthwick said. “It says a lot of good things about the team. [But] I thought we could have been much better in the final third. I also thought our intensity dropped off in the third quarter.
“We know, playing against a team as good as Scotland, that we cannot have that drop-off. The message to the players is: go out, move the ball, play fast, play brave. It suits the team we have. The weather is looking OK at the minute … if so, it could be a really good game of rugby on Saturday.”
