Martin Johnson says Scotland have big chance of a Grand Slam

Martin Johnson has spent much of this week trying to diffuse the row over Warren Gatland's criticisms of his hooker Dylan Hartley, and admitted that he is excited at the prospect of facing Wales in what will be the first Friday night opening match in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and last for a while.

In the 2012 and 2013 tournaments, Scotland and England will clash on the opening weekend, but for this year Johnson was glad that his side would have three games under their belt before welcoming their former coach, Andy Robinson, back to Twickenham for the first time as head coach with Scotland.

With Scotland and England also poised to meet in the World Cup in September, Johnson, the England manager, insisted he viewed Scotland as a dangerous side in this year's Six Nations, on account of their improvement and results under Robinson in 2009/10.

He said: "Scotland have beaten South Africa and Australia over the past year and won away in Ireland and gone to Argentina and won, so they could win every game they play in this tournament, which gives them a chance of winning the tournament.

"I think the whole field has actually come together. I think Ireland are coming under the radar because nobody is talking about them too much that I've seen, and they'll probably enjoy that. But everyone will be thinking 'if we get it right, we can win this'. People might say we're favourites but there are three teams that have won a Grand Slam in the last three years and we're not one of them so things can change very quickly."

The Six Nations coaches met up this week with the IRB's referees manager Paddy O'Brien and a key issue on the table was the growing annoyance with re-set scrums that plagued last year's tournament.

O'Brien insisted he and the referees want no repeat of the incessant re-setting as scrums dropped to the ground and the BBC began to run a clock on the time it wasted in games.

• Nearly men keen to make a statement at Netherdale

Nowhere was it more frustrating for players, supporters and TV viewers than in the scrappy Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield, drawn 15-15.

Johnson insisted that he and his forwards coach, Graham Rowntree, were unhappy with that performance, and stated that they would be instructing his pack to keep the scrum up, even if it meant conceding ground.

"The time taken re-setting scrums is too long," he said. "In the Scotland game last year a bit of rugby broke out between re-setting scrums and no-one wants that.

"We've got as pretty decent scrum. The way Graham coaches is about having a fair contest and a pushing competition and not baling out if it's not going our way.

"We want to have a platform to attack of, but if we get done we'll get done and deal with that, but stay up and scrummage. We know we don't win everything - if we go backwards we go backwards, if we go forwards we go forwards, but I don't think we're a scrum that goes down. "Every coach can say that, but there are stats that back up what we're about.

"The New Zealand game was a good example of that, with times we got the edge and times we didn't, but stayed up, and Leicester played Northampton the other week in the league and both teams had a real go at each other but the scrums stayed up."

With much of what coaches say in the pre-tournament 'phoney war' patently designed to influence the thinking of match officials, Robinson said he would wait until hearing the official announcement from the International Rugby Board on their plans for improving the scrummage contest in this year's championship before commenting.

But he agreed with Johnson that games were being hindered by scrum resets, delays and different refereeing interpretations.

He said: "I'll wait and see what the IRB says, but I expect there to be positive play (in the championship]. It's a dynamic thing that takes place.

"It's a bit like the physicality of the game. On occasions it gets over physical and punches get thrown and in the scrum you go in there with the belief that players will stay up, but when it comes under pressure at times it goes down.

"Hopefully, referees will see the teams that drop the scrums. I think it's quite obvious. think it will be different in this year's championship and that the ten referees they've got will be able to referee it."

On the complimentary words on Scotland from his former captain, he smiled and added: "It's nice. You always want to gain the respect of your opponent."

The Scotland head coach has played the talking game many times, but he wore the look of a man that knows that it means nothing outside of the 80 minutes of on-field battle, and is keen merely for the first whistle to sound.