Six Nations: How Scotland can beat England at own game as Blair Kinghorn and Darcy Graham fitness addressed

Scotland confident they can win physical battle in Calcutta Cup four-in-a-row bid

Scotland are confident of getting the better of England at the set-piece as they look for a fourth successive win in the Calcutta Cup. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Scotland are confident of beating England at their own game as they seek a fourth consecutive victory over their age-old rivals in the Six Nations.

The hosts aren’t expecting too many surprises at Murrayfield on Saturday and believe the visitors will bring their traditional power game with the emphasis on a strong set-piece. Pieter de Villiers, the Scotland scrum coach, thinks they can go after England in those areas.

“It’s important to keep your feet on the ground but it’s also important to believe you can move packs around and compete or beat them physically and set-piece wise,” said de Villiers. “It’s very important in Test match rugby to do well there and, with all the respect we’ve got for the English pack, we believe we will go head-to-head and toe-to-toe with them.”

The South African-born former France international stressed the importance of retaining traditional Scottish rugby virtues but also making sure they vary their game by using scrum and lineout as key weapons.

“We looked at balance: making sure we kept Scotland’s qualities which are the attacking game and skill set but also finding balance in other departments and over time we’ve grown confidence in our set-piece as well and it’s become an important weapon for us,” said de Villiers. “In Test match rugby variety becomes important, being able to vary your game and being able to take teams away from their game, and that’s why it’s so important to be strong in different departments.

“They will stay true to their DNA and bring a strong battle in the set-piece and play a territorial game and wait for us to make some errors. That's what we're expecting and we'll prep for that and make sure that up front we're ready for a big onslaught.”

De Villiers was upbeat about full-back Blair Kinghorn who has returned to the squad after a knee ligament strain and is hopeful winger Darcy Graham could be back for the round four fixture against Italy on March 9. Neither has played in this season’s Six Nations.

“Blair has been training really well and we’re excited to see him back in the squad again,” said de Villiers. “Darcy had started back with Edinburgh, and we were very happy about that. But he’s picked up a bit of a groin niggle so he’s just nursing that. We’ll see how that goes. We’ve got another fallow week [after the England game] so that will hopefully give him enough time and then we’ll just assess things from there.”