Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Scotland Extra & live text on the BBC Sport website and app
Finn Russell says Scotland cannot get caught up in “history and emotion” as they bid to complete a historic four-in-a-row in the Calcutta Cup on Saturday.
It would be the first time in more than half a century that Scotland would have won four consecutive Tests against England. That run included a Rugby Football Union centenary game, however. The Scots have not beaten England in four straight championship games since 1896.
“It’s about having belief in ourselves and trust in the work we’ve put in,” says the co-captain and fly-half.
“At times, we will be under pressure and it will be tough, but we can have belief and confidence in ourselves and hopefully we can take some of the chances that will be out there.
“A learning from the World Cup was to not go into our shell when we come under pressure. There were chances against South Africa that we never saw on the pitch because we went into our shell a little bit.”
Russell has parked the sense of injustice he felt after the Six Nations loss to France last time out, when Scotland were denied a winning try in controversial circumstances.
“We want to get ourselves back on track,” he said. “The last few seasons, we’ve won three out of five games, so we’re looking to progress and get more than that this season.
“So it means winning the next three games, which is no easy feat. We’re not satisfied beating one or two teams in this competition. Our expectation and goal is to keep progressing year-on-year after the disappointment against France.”
As ever, the preamble to the Calcutta Cup largely revolves around Russell and his unique brand of brilliance. The Bath fly-half will be playing against England for the ninth time.
He lost his first three and has won his most recent three. Sandwiched in between have been the remarkable 25-13 victory – and the famous Russell pass – in 2018 and the even more remarkable 38-38 draw at Twickenham that featured another masterclass from the fly-half in an unforgettable second half.
Russell has won four of his past five Calcutta Cups and has drawn the other, so England will have plans for him.
Like South Africa did in France, England will deploy a blitz defence. The Irishman Felix Jones was on the Springbok coaching ticket at the World Cup and he is with England now, plotting what he hopes will be Russell’s downfall, no doubt.
“I’m not sure what England are going to do – fly out of the line and take me out, or if they are going to try to shut me down from the outside, but that’s something we will have to figure out in the game,” he said.
“We have to be able to adapt. Myself, Sione [Tuipulotu] and Huw [Jones] have to be on the same page. The more aligned we are, the better it will be.
“If they try to shut me down, that might mean we have to go through Sione or Blair [Kinghorn] or somebody else further out to create chances.
“The 10 controls a lot of the attack, but it’s not just down to me to create things. We will be looking to use other boys.”
Russell was unaware that his rival captain Jamie George suffered a terrible sadness last week when his mother passed away. He had supportive words for a man he holds in high regard.
“I got on really well with Jamie on the Lions tour in 2021,” he recalled. “A great man, I’m really sorry to hear that. I’ll give him a text now to send my condolences.
“That’s a tough thing to deal with. It’s terrible for him, but I hope him and his family are OK.”
Russell also had words of admiration for George’s team, which is a side in transition.
“The World Cup showed how good they can be,” he suggested.
“They’ve won their first two [Six Nations] games and are getting back to where they should be as one of the best teams in the world. Maybe we’ve had the rub of the green the last few years, but it can change so quickly in sport.
“We can’t look back on the last few games and say it has turned in our favour. It’s a huge challenge and we have to be at our very best to beat them. We have to be ready for anything.”
An international season that started on 5 August in Cardiff ended for England on Saturday in Auckland with a feeling of deja vu in the air.
Just like in Dunedin a week earlier, England had stayed in the fight admirably in the first half, rallying either side of the break to take control and threaten to pull off a historic win, before frustratingly fading in the final quarter as the All Blacks bench proved decisive.
So how should England supporters view the 2-0 series defeat? A tour that showed Steve Borthwick’s side are moving in the right direction? Or a huge missed opportunity?
“Absolutely both,” said skipper Jamie George, who led the group with distinction on his first tour as captain.
England have played South Africa, Ireland and France over the past eight months, in addition to two games against New Zealand. The aggregate score against these top four sides in the world is 101-111, with one narrow win and four narrow defeats.
“We are definitely trending in the right direction,” vice-captain Henry Slade said.
“We are pushing the top four sides now and getting better and better week by week.”
The challenge for England now is to get on the right side of these tussles.
“I don’t want to revisit mistakes,” reflected Borthwick on Sunday in downtown Auckland, shortly before starting the long journey home via Sydney and Singapore.
“In each of those games, we’ve been in a position late in the game in a leading position on the scoreboard.”
‘I need to coach them fast’
There are some key areas where England need to improve if they are to become a genuine force on the world stage.
Keeping the scoreboard moving when matches tighten up – England scored only three second-half points in Auckland and five in Dunedin – as well as shoring up the scrum and being more streetwise are all areas highlighted by Borthwick.
“Test matches at this level are tight encounters, they are decided generally by a penalty or a drop-goal, one moment, one missed kick,” he said.
“That is the nature of it and the players have experienced that, we are going to be better for it. Every one of these has to be a learning experience.”
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After relying on an older core to reach the World Cup semi-finals last year, Borthwick says 2024 has been the “second phase” of his tenure as he goes about building a new team.
“So far in these eight Tests [in 2024] we have had eight new caps,” he explained.
There is youth all across the backline. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is 21. Fin Smith 22. Ollie Sleightholme, 24, made his debut in New Zealand.
Up front, 22-year-old Fin Baxter has come through. Chandler Cunningham-South at 21 and George Martin, only just 23, have continued to emerge. Experience, though, wins tight Test matches. And while Borthwick and his coaches can’t buy experience, they aim to accelerate the players’ learning.
“The England pack has changed from what was traditionally a very big powerful pack to more of a younger, dynamic pack,” Borthwick explained.
“You can see that younger pack developing. I need to coach them as fast as I can.”
‘We have to develop at tight-head’
While depth is building in some areas, other positions still look light with tight-head prop of particular concern. Too much is being asked of 37-year-old Dan Cole, who has now won more caps at prop than any other Englishman.
The scrum creaked in both Tests against the All Blacks.
“I’ll have a conversation with Coley and see what he wants to do,” said Borthwick. “But quite clearly we need to find some more tight-heads. That’s going to be a big development project.
“Will Stuart has done really well in the last couple of Tests. The New Zealand scrum is very good and outside the scrum I thought he did many things very well.
“Part of my next step is to do that kind of planning and decide on the right thing to do. I’m trying to have consistency in selection and build the number of caps, not just individually but together, so we maximise the cohesion.
“That’s clearly with a longer-term goal in mind but we need results now as well. That’s always a challenge the England head coach has. We need results now and we need to be preparing for several years in advance.”
‘World-class Ford to return’
Behind the scrum, England need more back-up to Alex Mitchell at number nine, with neither Harry Randall or Ben Spencer given much game time. Mitchell played the whole 80 minutes in Auckland.
At fly-half Marcus Smith was trusted with running the side throughout the tour, and while he missed some crucial kicks in the first Test against New Zealand, he excelled in Tokyo against Japan and set up three of England’s four tries against the All Blacks.
Namesake Fin came off the bench twice but didn’t have long enough to impose himself.
“I thought Marcus has done some really good things, when you see the ability he has to see space, to create tries, to open up a defence,” Borthwick said.
Meanwhile, the England boss was unequivocal when asked whether 96-cap George Ford still had a role to play after missing the tour through injury. If Ford returns to form and fitness, he could well wear number 10 again in the autumn.
“He is world class and I thought his performance in the Six Nations was exceptional,” Borthwick said.
“The three of them – Fin Smith, George Ford and Marcus – it puts us in a pretty enviable position.”
‘We have fight and spirit’
England’s players will now get a minimum five-week break before returning to their clubs. The new Professional Game Partnership between clubs and the Rugby Football Union has been agreed, which will give Borthwick slightly more control over a core group of 20 or so players.
Their next assignment in a white jersey will be at Twickenham in November with – fittingly – the All Blacks first up.
“We owe them one,” said George.
“To get the results we need to be tactically smart and we’ve got to be really well organised,” continued Borthwick.
“But fundamentally, there’s got to be something that sits underneath all that and that is the fight and spirit that we have within the team.
“What you see in this England team now is fight and spirit, and we need to make sure that gives us a good foundation for everything we do going forward.”
The Saracens back row was tireless with ball in hand and earned his second man-of-the-match award of the championship after winning the same accolade for his performance in last month’s win over Wales.
His impressive development in the role as England’s first choice number eight follows an excellent World Cup campaign and Borthwick says the 26-year-old is “delivering” on his targets.
“It is phenomenal, the thought process he is going through and how ambitious he is as a player to get better,” Borthwick said.
“Ben played his first 15 games off the bench. Even in last year’s Six Nations he played a run of games and then he was out.
“I think he feels backed. I get the impression he feels he is growing as a player and he wants to keep getting better.”
‘Everybody involved with England is under incredible scrutiny’
England’s surprise 23-22 win over defending champions Ireland in the penultimate round has revived faint title ambitions heading into their meeting with France on Saturday.
Ireland remain in pole position to defend their title when they host Scotland, but England’s attacking intent at Twickenham, outscoring their visitors 3-2 on tries, was a huge improvement on their capitulation at Murrayfield.
“Post the Scotland game, there was evidence that the weight of the shirt was on the players,” Borthwick added.
“I believe we need to create a supportive environment. Everybody involved with English rugby is under incredible scrutiny. That’s just the way it is.
“There’s incredible expectation and I’d rather be involved in a team where there is expectation upon it than not.
“But with that I want to make sure that young players are coming into a supportive environment. I want to see their point of difference on the grass.
“Mistakes are going to happen and we are understanding of that, but we don’t want to repeat mistakes. We have got to learn fast.
“The team went through a difficult experience at Murrayfield, reviewed it properly and then addressed it on the training field.
“The players weren’t perfect against Ireland, they made mistakes, but at Murrayfield I thought we made a mistake and then went into ourselves, played a little bit small.
“Against Ireland they made errors and got into the next battle. If there is anything I can encourage the players to do, it is go into the next battle.”
Edinburgh lock Marshall Sykes has been recalled by Scotland for the first time in two years as the squad prepares for Saturday’s Six Nations game in Italy.
Gregor Townsend has called up 24-year-old Sykes for the first time since the 2022 Six Nations in place of Scarlets second row Alex Craig.
Oyonnax’s Rory Sutherland and Javan Sebastian of Edinburgh are recalled as Edinburgh prop WP Nel, 37, drops out.
Glasgow Warriors scrum-half Jamie Dobie is also called back in to the squad.
Veteran forward Nel, who played for Edinburgh against Ospreys on Friday, has not featured in this season’s championship and Scotland are threadbare in the prop department.
Sebastian has been in and out of the squad as he searches for full fitness while Sutherland – a British and Irish Lion in 2021 – was a surprise absentee from the initial squad.
He admitted his disappointment at missing out on the initial pool to Le French Rugby Podcast but is now recalled despite rarely featuring for the French Top 14 side since the World Cup.
Scotland are already without locks Richie and Jonny Gray as well as Cameron Henderson.
Glasgow Warriors centre Sione Tuipulotu has been ruled out of Saturday’s game in Italy because of the injury he picked up in the Calcutta Cup win over England that is expected to rule him out for at least eight weeks.
Darcy Graham is also ruled out and will play no part in the championship for the second year in succession.
Dobie has already trained with the squad in the opening rounds and joins Ben White, Ali Price and George Horne as the scrum-halves in the squad.
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