Rennie wary of inexperienced English

ROSS Rennie has never started a Calcutta Cup match and his only appearance against England was from the bench in the World Cup match four months ago. It is not only England, therefore, who will be releasing inexperienced Test performers on to the Murrayfield stage this weekend. But how Rennie, and his back-row colleagues Dave Denton and Alasdair Strokosch, perform against the new English trio will be at the heart of which way Saturday’s game swings.

Stuart Lancaster is expected to name a back row of Phil Dowson, the Northampton flanker, at No 8 flanked by Tom Croft on the blindside and new skipper Chris Robshaw at openside. Dowson stands at 6ft 3in and weighs nearly 17 stones, Robshaw 6ft 2in and 16 stones with Leicester flanker Croft 6ft 6in and 16 and a half stones.

Croft faces Strokosch, three inches shorter, Dowson’s opposite number is Denton, two inches taller and a bit heavier too, and Rennie comes in two inches under Robshaw and a bit lighter. But it is an intriguing contest, and one, even though Strokosch plays in England, which will put under scrutiny the Celtic League’s revival and Premiership’s plunge in Europe.

The Scots certainly have a good recent example in the way that Munster ran Dowson and his Northampton back row off the pitch in the Heineken Cup.

Rennie is too polite and clever to forecast anything, or suggest that he might have an advantage over Robshaw in terms of height and speed, crucial traits at the breakdown.Instead, he said: “Any England team that England field is going to be a difficult team to beat.

“They will have a big pack and big back rows and Robshaw still plays a lot at seven, and he’s a very good player, so I don’t know if it’s going to be a huge advantage. But there will be little areas of the game where we’ll be trying to get on top.

“It is more attritional the English game in general, isn’t it? They thrive on big packs going forward and, hopefully, if we can combat that and try to run them about, but on the back foot, by winning the set-piece, this could be a really good game for us.”

Rennie’s selection ahead of the clever workhorse John Barclay was a big one for Andy Robinson but the Scotland coach knows plenty about back-row play and Rennie has the opportunity now to put his two years in the injury-enforced wilderness firmly in the past and play a part in moving Scotland forward.

He added: “We’re just all looking to start winning some games. The World Cup was a big disappointment and everyone in the squad is out to win, performing to win as opposed to just performing for a good game.

“Like everyone, I grew up watching the Scotland-England games. The fact that this is my first start against them and it’s the first game at Murrayfield in a new year is great.

“Obviously, to be a Scottish boy playing against England is just a really good thing, a great challenge.”