Twickenham hosting titanic battle
There is never any love lost between these two countries.
Irrelevant to the sport being played, they want nothing more than to get one over their bitter rivals.
There is the added motivation that whoever wins today can move above France into second place in the Six Nations table.
Past Calcutta Cup meetings
The Scots have dominated this fixture for the past four years and they will be eyeing a fifth straight win this afternoon.
- Scotland 30-21 England (2024)
- England 23-29 Scotland (2023)
- Scotland 20-17 England (2022)
- England 6-11 Scotland (2021)
- Scotland 6-13 England (2020)
- England 38-38 Scotland (2019)
Arrivals
Both sets of players arriving at Twickenham ahead of this afternoon’s huge Calcutta Cup clash.
Borthwick: ‘This England team is a very different team to the one that played last year’
Speaking ahead of the crunch Calcutta Cup clash, England coach Steve Borthwick said:
“As part of the preparation of any game, I always look back at the most recent matches against the opponent.
“What we also have to acknowledge is this [England] team is a very different team to the one that played last year.
“Danny Care started at scrum-half last year and he has retired from Test duty so you have to be conscious of drawing parallels.
“In comparison to previous England teams, the strengths of this one are wider than they used to be.
“There are different distribution strengths and there is an athleticism to this team which is different to 12 months ago.
“We are not looking at the past and the focus is on this weekend. The atmosphere is going to be phenomenal and I think it will be a brilliant Test match.”
Russell in from the start
Scotland’s starman Finn Russell is fit to start this afternoon after a nasty clash of heads with teammate Darcy Graham in the first half against Ireland.
Graham was stretchered off and is not in the squad this afternoon.
Kyle Rowe comes onto the wing in his place.
Scotland line-up to face England
Scotland XV: Kinghorn; Rowe, Jones, Jordan, Van der Merwe; Russell (co-c), White; Schoeman, Cherry, Z Fagerson; Gray, Gilchrist; Ritchie, Darge (co-c), Dempsey
Replacements: Ashman, Sutherland, Hurd, Skinner, Brown, M Fagerson, Dobie, McDowall