Finn Russell can inspire with new sidekick but Scots must shackle the Smiths to retain Calcutta Cup

Townsend’s side looking to make history at Allianz Stadium

The balance of the Calcutta Cup has tipped so much in Scotland’s favour over the last seven years that it is now England and their camp of followers who feel the need to make bombastic pre-match statements.

“You don’t want blind rage and you don’t want blind, beating-your-chest fury, but you need some of that,” noted Maro Itoje, their captain, this week.

England’s scrum coach Tom Harrison was also keen to talk up their bad lad credentials. “Actually, there’s a nastiness to us,” he said in a slightly pass-agg manner.

Scotland's Finn Russell during a training session at Allianz Stadium ahead of the England match. | PA

Gregor Townsend, on the other hand, has been going the opposite way, calling for “cool heads” and admitting that in the past he had been guilty of ramping things up too much. “I felt I got the players up a bit too emotionally for the start of the game,” the Scotland coach said of the 2019 match. “You've got to be lucid, calm, in control, but you have to be aggressive.”

No more watching Braveheart the night before the match which Ryan Wilson claimed was a staple back in his day.

This is a fixture which pulls at the emotions and taps into the primal instincts of players and supporters alike. The hoary old adage that it matters more to Scotland than it does to England is one that seems to ring less true with each Scottish victory.

It is now four in a row and Scotland have never won five on the bounce against their oldest rivals. It is starting to grate. A number of antagonistic opinion pieces have appeared in English newspapers this week and Andy Goode, the former England back, said yesterday that it was “time for the Calcutta Cup to come home”, and he didn’t mean India.

Buoyed by their win over France, England go into Saturday’s match at Allianz Stadium as odds-on favourites. Bookmakers don’t often get it wrong but it seems slightly off kilter to have the home side priced at 2/7 while Scotland are 5/2.

England have not beaten the Scots at the ground formerly known as Twickenham since 2017 and if they are to do so on Saturday they will need to nullify Finn Russell. No player has revelled in this fixture more than the stand-off whose ability to put the likes of Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe into space has lit up Scotland’s run of victories.

Scotland's Finn Russell with the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield last year. | PA

England have tried to target Russell previously but it has only opened the door for those around him. Stuart Hogg has been a beneficiary in the past but more recently it has been Sione Tuipulotu who has stepped up as second receiver. Sadly, the injured Glasgow Warriors centre is playing no part in this season’s championship so the onus is on his club-mate, Tom Jordan, to grasp the nettle. The New Zealand-born midfielder may lack Tuipulotu’s pizzazz but he possesses a formidable range of passing and is a pugnacious competitor.

Of course, Russell will need his forwards to supply plenty of ball and the Scottish pack was distinctly second best in the loss to Ireland a fortnight ago. Underpowered and weak are just two of the criticisms levelled at them in the aftermath of the 32-18 defeat at Murrayfield which has made Saturday's match a must-win for their title hopes.

Tom Jordan can be a pugnacious influence for Scotland. | Getty Images

Gregor Townsend resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes but has brought back prop Pierre Schoeman and flanker Jamie Ritchie for the benched Rory Sutherland and Matt Fagerson. He has kept faith with the second row pairing of Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray and with Jack Dempsey at No 8. Both Gray and Dempsey came into the tournament on the back of injuries which left them short of game-time but the coach is confident the pair are now shaking off the rust.

“It was a tough game for our pack against Ireland for a number of reasons but I felt both second-rows were a big part of how we got back into the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half,” said Townsend of the Scotland mini-revival.

“We took Jonny off early again in that game, then he came off the bench and did really well for Bordeaux at the weekend, so I think he and Jack Dempsey are almost back to full match fitness.

“Jonny is obviously raring to go, Grant as well. They've played in these fixtures over the last few years and before that when we weren't as successful, but they've been involved in a lot of our success against England they bring experience too.

“So yeah, like everyone on our team, we'll be wanting to play better than we did against Ireland.”

After the success against France, England are sticking with twin fly-halves in the backline as Marcus Smith is deployed again at full-back to accommodate Fin Smith at 10. The latter enjoyed a stellar evening against the French, the former less so but there is no doubting the pair’s talents.

“They're really dangerous,” said Townsend, who sounded Fin out about playing for Scotland before England came calling. “Marcus is a brilliant attacker, a counter-attacker. And he gets to do that more often at full-back. But he's also a really good first receiver, so he can work in tandem with Fin.

“Fin is really competitive. He'll tackle, he'll carry. And he's a really good organiser of attacks. So they're dangerous with both those players, but they've got some really good players outside of that as well.”

Taking care of the Smiths would go a long way to securing a history-making win for the Scots as they look to remain a thorn in the side of England.

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England: M Smith; T Freeman, O Lawrence, H Slade, O Sleightholme; F Smith, A Mitchell; E Genge, L Cowan-Dickie, W Stuart, M Itoje (capt), O Chessum, T Curry, B Earl, T Willis. Replacements: J George, F Baxter, J Heyes, T Hill, C Cunningham-South, B Curry, H Randall, E Daly.

Scotland: B Kinghorn; K Rowe, H Jones, T Jordan, D van der Merwe; F Russell (co-capt), B White; P Schoeman, D Cherry, Z Fagerson, J Gray, G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, R Darge (co-capt), J Dempsey. Replacements: E Ashman, R Sutherland, W Hurd, S Skinner, G Brown, M Fagerson, J Dobie, J McDowall.

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)