Six Nations: Scotland wary of England suffocation as decisions on WP Nel, Javan Sebastian and Jamie Bhatti explained

Scrum coach De Villiers has been impressed with team’s set-piece but knows it must be on point to ensure more Calcutta Cup success

WP Nel, pictured left with Scott Cummings, is back in the Scotland squad after recovering from a neck strain. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Scotland’s recent dominance in the Calcutta Cup has been founded on their ability to match and beat the English pack and a large dollop of the credit should go the way of John Dalziel and Pieter de Villiers.

As forwards coach and scrum coach respectively, the pair have been important lieutenants for Gregor Townsend as he set about making his squad more durable after the 2019 Rugby World Cup. While it’s not been plain sailing, one fixture in which they have managed to achieve mastery is against England and this weekend at Murrayfield Scotland will strive to beat the Auld Enemy for the fourth time in a row, something they've not done since 1970-72.

De Villiers, the South African-born former France international, arrived before the 2020 Six Nations and has set about trying to turn the Scottish set-piece into one of the best in the world. He is pleased with the progress made but knows it’s still an area England will target on Saturday..

Scotland scrum coach Pieter de Villiers during a training session at Oriam on Tuesday ahead of the England game. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

“We’ve always wanted to become a better team, week in, week out. There is that hunger for improvement,” he said.

“We’ve made set-piece an important factor of our psyche and preparation. It’s important to get off to a good start, and that’s set-piece, first phase. The boys have been brilliant lineout-wise, scrum-wise and kick off-wise. That sets a good platform.

“England are a team where if you don’t start well, with your set-piece, you won’t do well. That consistency has been an important part of our growth and will be important for us again this weekend. We respect England a lot. They are currently ranked above us and they’ve had a solid World Cup and they're always tough up-front so we know it will be another physical Calcutta Cup match.”

England come into the match on the back of narrow victories over Italy and Wales. Scotland won in Cardiff in round one but lost at home to France a week later and were left nursing a grievance over the way match referee Nic Berry and TMO Brian MacNeice decided they couldn’t award the Scots a late score despite Sam Skinner appearing to ground the ball. A try would have won the game for Scotland but de Villiers insists they have moved on.

“It almost feels long ago,” said the scrum coach. “A bit of time off was good for the team. There's obviously been frustration and disappointment. I thought we'd done enough to win that game but that’s the way rugby goes. It’s important to be able to move on. It's important to be able to be frustrated as well. As much as there were things we could have done better, it’s good to know that we did enough [to potentially win the game] as well. That’s important for our psyche. It won’t be the last decision to go against us.

“The boys have been positive and working hard and what better match to have next than the Calcutta Cup in our last game in Edinburgh until November, our last opportunity to play in front of our home crowd. It's always a special game to look forward to. A great rivalry.”

While England haven’t been entirely convincing in this Six Nations, they are sitting second in the standings on eight points, with only Ireland above them. They are three points clear of the third-placed Scots who need to a win to retain any realistic hope of winning the championship. “It will be physical,” warned de Villiers. “They are a team who can suffocate, and we have to be ready for that.”

Scotland’s cause will be aided by the return of WP Nel who is in the frame to be involved this weekend after missing the first two rounds with a neck strain. He played most of the game as Edinburgh beat Zebre last Friday and is vying to be Zander Fagerson’s understudy against England. Elliot Millar-Mills was reserve tighthead for the Wales and France games but wasn’t used against the French as Fagerson played the full 80 minutes.

“He didn’t show any signs of fatigue and that’s why Gregor’s gone with him for the whole 80,” said de Villiers. “Up until that last scrum Zander had the upper hand and we believe he did really well. At the same time, we’ve got a lot of confidence in the boys behind him but our No 1 tighthead did very well on that day.”

The return of Nel meant Scotland felt able to release Javan Sebastian from their squad.

“WP has had a bit more game-time, having played at the weekend, whereas Javan hasn’t played much since his injury,” explained de Villiers. “WP had more than 50 minutes for Edinburgh at the weekend and scrummed very well. Elliot has done very well for us - coming on against Wales he showed a lot of maturity. He’s come from Northampton and slotted in well. He’s deserved the right to be involved with the squad again. It’s great to have more depth. We’ve got more props and front-rowers coming through and that’s fantastic. It’s all healthy competition.”

It’s the same on the other side of the scrum, where Jamie Bhatti has been left frustrated by his lack of game-time, with Pierre Schoeman starting at loosehead and Alec Hepburn as his replacement.

“Jamie scrummed well again on Saturday [for Glasgow against the Dragons] and there is a lot going on among the looseheads at the moment. We’ve got players like Rory Sutherland who are not even here at the moment and he’s a Test match level player as well.”

De Villiers said he speaks to Sutherland regularly and welcomed the player’s decision to return to Scotland to join Glasgow in the summer after a season in France with Oyonnax. “It’s always good to have our players in our system here in Scotland and it’ll be good for him to be closer to his family as well,” said the coach.