England v Scotland The Calcutta Cup Saturday 6th February 2021

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England v Scotland
The Calcutta Cup

Twickenham Stadium
London

Saturday 6th February 2021
KO 16.45


Well here we go for a 6n opener.

It is going to be a slightly odd one no doubt, playing this game in an empty stadium. It has been said in the past that Twickenham lacks atmosphere a bit, but we won't have seen anything on this scale.

As usual, it will be England's game to lose. Twickenham has been a graveyard for Scottish sides for a long long time. In terms of hope though for us Scots, the last few games have been a lot closer than usual and who can forget the madness of the last time out, the ultimate game of two halves.

England are missing a few players and there has to be some questions about the match prep of some of the Saracens players, who have not played since the autumn. How they get on in this game will be the great question mark hanging over this game and may set the tone for England over the entire championship. I would imagine Scotland will be pleased to be playing them first up in all honesty.

On the other hand, do Scotland, who with Finn Russell back and pulling the strings and looking a stronger proposition than in the autumn, really believe that they can win in London. They are also largely injury free. It would be a massive step forward for them as a team if they could do that. It remains unclear though and the smart money is still going to be on an England win, albeit likely a scrappy one.


Here is my stab at the Scotland team:

1. Sutherland
2. Turner
3. Fagerson Z
4. Cummings
5. Gray J
6. Ritchie - If fit, but Toonie making promising noises on that front
7. Watson
8. Fagerson M
9. Price
10. Russell
11. Maitland
12. Redpath - I think Toonie will roll the dice
13. Harris
14. VDM
15. Hogg

Subs

Keeble
Cherry
Nel
Gray R
Graham -might have been in the side if not playing this sunday
Steele
VDW
Jones H


The big calls for Toonie are at 12 and No.8

Redpath looks ready and I think he should play him. Graham might have to wait a week, as i think playing today might well count against him, so let Matt Fagerson have the first bite of the cherry.

What surprised me was Eddie claiming England didn't have enough ball to do anything in that game whilst talking to reporters.

We all knew Young's and Farrell were going to kick all day long. So did Scotland.

Eddie had his pants pulled down tactical. Time to stop playing rugby by numbers and use the talent we have to play rugby.

Jones is just giving the media the run around as he always does. Its been his tactic to play without posession for a while now and get the ball back through penalties and turnovers. It just didnt work as Hogg fielded very well and Scotlands pack bossed Englands. Englands defense was excellent though.

GC is right though that neither team can get too carried away with themselves. Looking back over the years, the conclusions drawn at week 1 tended to be very different from how it ended up.

England could go on a 4 game winning streak and Scotland could feasibly lose the next 3 games (Wales, France, Ireland) and end up with a disappointing finale against Italy!

The 6N is such a brutal tournaments - anything could happen.

What struck me yesterday was the coming of age for the Glasgow Pro12 winners.
We’ve know for years that Hogg, Russell and Gray had the potential to be world class. They’ve left Scotland and added to their games. Hogg and Gray seem to have added that Anglo-Saxon pragmatism. Russell has turned his kicking game into one of the world’s best and has also imbibed some Gallic tempestuousness.
All three should be Lions, the only question mark is Russell. I’ve always felt that it he were English he’d be treated like Cipriani and vice versa. Gatland may well decide that with a whole host of other potential 10s it simply is not worth taking Finn.

Well deserved win for Scotland. Once Scotland scored first and that truly huge winger touched down, it always looked on the cards as a classic Scottish win. England apart from one ominous set of phases in the Scottish 22, never looked like scoring.

Two months ago England beat Ireland, having got in front on the score board and made their attack look inept. Yesterday it was England's turn and frankly what did they expect when behind and kicking the ball to Hogg, who was simply going to lamp the ball back in the English corners.
The Scottish lineout was flawless and with two potentially crucial turnovers in their own 22 and their scrum hung on in there, leaving England, with a limited game plan, nowhere to go.
The high number of soft penalties conceded that Scotland didn't have to earn and sorely missed ball carriers were two more nails in the wooden box.

England are perhaps lucky that they have Italy next although they too might fancy their chances if they score first.

Hogg looks much more assured than last season and has nailed the Lions fullback slot and both the locks must now be in contention. Russell still looks like he would drive Gatland to distraction with his smirk demeanour and on another day those missed spot kicks could have haunted him. Pleased for Townsend.

I didn't see the game until late last night, telly decided not to turn on and I couldn't get it working. Quick internet search and got one from probably the only high street electrical retailer left. I have to say that it was brilliant service, chose a tv that the website said was in stock locally, ordered and paid, an hour later a message comes through that it is all ready. Drive down into a designated parking area, push a few buttons for name car reg and make and pop the boot, someone comes out and places it in the boot and away you go.

Now to the game; from an England perspective the blank screen on the old tv would have been a lot better, they were awful. Scotland played well and I will give them a lot of credit, but my old school team could have beaten England yesterday. Every worry about the Sarries contingent turned out to be fact. Off the pace, looking unfit, mentally not in sync with what was happening around them. As these are all senior members of the team, I cannot help but wonder if this had an effect on the other players.

George and Itoje were just penalty machines, apart from a couple of charge downs by Itoje, I cannot think of anything else they did other than miss lineouts.

Farrell was at his worst, slow, ponderous decision making and then usually the wrong decision. do I pass or kick, 2 seconds later he kicks as he remembered that the boss had told him that "the ball needed a good kicking today".  Forget that we have a potentially good centre pairing and flying back three. I must do as I have been told kick, kick, kick. I don't think he has an original thought in his head.

May, well he just had one of those days when absolutely nothing went right. He has plenty of points in the bank. Watson the same.

Daly, he has become a bit bigger and faster but far less skillful version of Alex Goode. Catch or field the ball, look up run straight at the nearest bunch of the opposition, quick shimmy, shuffle feet, get tackled. Either that or just boot it upfield albeit a very long way. He has serious gas, why does he not use it to run into space and support of the wingers and centres, if nothing is on, then take a considered kick, not just a hoof.

I would comment on the forwards, but apart from Itoje and George previously mentioned, no one did anything of note other than defend which I will grudgingly say they did pretty well. Did we actually make any turnovers at the breakdown?

The replacement were a farce, BV left on until late when it was obvious that he was still playing Championship level rugby, Wilson, the only English forward that looked like he wanted to be there taken off instead. Malins brought on with 5 minutes to go when it should have been at half time Daly was playing that badly. Lawrence dragged off three minutes after he had received his first pass to allow golden boy Farrell the embarrassment of being taken off. Did Ford touch the ball after he came on?

I cannot believe that all the players would perform that badly at the same time unless it was something to do with the coaching. Perhaps everyone had to be as out of match practise as the Sarries boys so that they didn't feel bad.

If EJ does not start to think a bit more clearly the RFU need to think about a replacement very quickly because at the moment despite our apparent riches in players, we are going backwards at an alarming rate.

Well played Scotland, at least two points better per man than England and I may be doing them a disservice at two points.