‘ENGLAND CLASH IS JUST ANOTHER GAME FOR SCOTS’

FINN RUSSELL believes beating England has lost its novelty value and the Calcutta Cup clash is just another game these days.

Scotland’s co-captain has been the central cog in a run of dominance in the fixture – but claims it has become humdrum.

A 2018 win for the Scots ended a decade of England victories and the 2021 triumph at Twickenham came on the back of a 37-year drought in south-west London.

And Russell (right) claims beating England is not the big deal it once was and is treating today’s match-up like any other Test.

The 31-year-old said: “We are not getting too caught up in the history and passion and emotion behind it.

“It has changed over the last few years with results going more in our favour, whereas before it was always a massive win if we beat England, so before it was viewed slightly differently to now.

“Now we’re much more professional around this fixture and we’re not seeing this as a game in the tournament, as if we beat England it’s a successful campaign for us. We’re viewing this equal to the other games in it. There was probably more emotion through the week and that was something that would have been spoken about, whereas this week we’ve not done much of that.

“There’s almost been the opposite – trying to take that away this week.

“In the past if we were able to beat England it was a huge result and we used to celebrate it – a lot. Don’t get me wrong, we all still celebrate. But it’s a different way.” England’s new blitz defence style, brought in by Felix Jones, will be aiming to snuff out the threat of fly-half Russell – but he thinks he can exploit it. He added: “If you do manage to get round it, South Africa are the best in terms of having the blitz defence and the cover in behind chasing – some of the back row go in behind the scrum and chase across in case of anything, so that’s the safety net.

“If you unlock it you then have the challenge of cover coming across.

“I’ve not seen enough of the last two England games and teams getting round them and that safety net coming across.

“So hopefully we can get round them or through them.”