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'A fired up England with a point to prove are always a dangerous team'

Scotland/ PA

England head to Edinburgh this weekend for the Calcutta Cup with a point to prove, almost a year to the day after Scotland earned their first win against the ‘Auld Enemy’ at Twickenham since 1983.

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Eddie Jones’ side have had their share of disruptions in the build up to the Guinness Six Nations, from positive Covid-19 tests and injuries to hotel fires and night time evacuations. Then again, Scotland have had their injury woes too, losing loosehead Jamie Bhatti this week.

When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 16:45 (UK) on Saturday February 5th at BT Murrayfield Stadium and will be broadcast live on BBC in the UK, Virgin Media in Ireland, Stan Sport in Australia and SuperSport in South Africa.

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Head-to-head
England boast a healthy record of 76 wins to Scotland’s 44 since their first match in 1871, with 19 draws along the way. However, Scotland have proven to Jones’ nemesis since his first game in charge of England in 2016, which was a win against Scotland. The Australian only has a 50 percent win rate in Calcutta Cup matches, which is his joint worst record for England, tied with his record against the All Blacks.

Match odds from bet365
bet365 expect a close game and have the handicap on England at +2, with 5/1 odds that Scotland win with a margin of 1-5 points. There are also 28/1 odds that no tries are scored in the match.

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Prediction

Former England No.8 Lawrence Dallaglio raised some concerns about the experience in the England squad on BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight this week, but he believes England will go up to Edinburgh with a point to prove.

“There’s not a lot of experience there,” the former England captain said. “Could [Sam] Simmonds and [Alex] Dombrandt have 20 more caps each? I believe they could. Should they be further down the experience route?

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“It’s going to be a big challenge for this England team. They go up there with a wonderful fly-half but hasn’t played a huge amount at international level. It doesn’t seem to faze him but we’ll soon find out. So some big question marks for Eddie Jones to answer.

“But a fired up England with a point to prove are always a dangerous team and they’ve lost three out of the last four Calcutta Cup and I think we need to remind ourselves about that. You’re in an England dressing room, you need to redress the balance and go up there and make a statement. That’s going to be tough, because Scotland are in good shape, they’ll fancy their chances.”

*Odds accurate as of 02/02/22.

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Comments

1 Comment
D
Dale 1022 days ago

Rugby article disguised as a gambling advertisement. Should help generate a few more addicts!

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JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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