SCOTLAND LATEST Someofour boys are still Stu-ing over Twickenham
NATWEST 6 NATIONS
LAST year’s heavy defeat at Twickenham is still in the minds of the Scotland players as they prepare to host England at BT Murrayfield next week.
A Scotland team chasing the Triple Crown travelled down to London last year with the hope of causing an upset in the Six Nations, but were given a lesson in Test rugby.
They were sent packing with a 61-21 thrashing as England retained their title in style, but hooker Stuart McInally admits the manner of the defeat for Scotland has stayed in the minds of the players, who will be looking to continue the form showed against France last time out.
“It’s definitely still in the back of the minds,” McInally admitted. “You can’t just ignore the game and pretend it didn’t happen. We will have to look at the game and areas we need to sharpen up.
“That is obviously still in the back of a few minds and we will want to right a few wrongs, especially being at Murrayfield.”
The Dark Blues have been boosted by the potential return to the squad of WP Nel and Zander Fagerson, who have both been sidelined so far due to injuries.
The front row was deemed an area of weakness in the lead up to the Wales and France games, but Scotland responded manfully in Edinburgh last week with McInally and Simon Berghan standing out, and the hooker is pleased with how they have performed ahead of their biggest challenge yet.
He said: “I feel the scrum has gone fairly well in the first couple of weeks. I don’t really know what people were expecting but we were never going to massively struggle.
“We have some great props and great second rows with a lot of weight coming through there.
“Scrummaging is not just about the front row and we’re all in good shape scrummaging quite well at the moment.
“We are taking confidence from that French game where I felt we could have been a bit more dominant if we had held our shape and our feet more.
“A few went down as we were going forward, but we will take confidence from that but we are under no illusions England are a level up again so we will need to be even better to go well against them.”
He added: “We have a hell of a lot of depth now, especially in the prop position with how well Bergie played at the weekend.
“He was a real standout performer not just in the scrum but around the pitch as well.
“It’s great for the team and great for us at Edinburgh and Scotland that you have these players coming through.”
HEAD coach Gregor Townsend added six players to his squad yesterday. Harlequins wing Tim Visser and Gloucester centre Matt Scott are the only backs to be added, having last featured on the 2017 summer tour against Fiji and Australia respectively.
Tight-head prop Willem Nel returns from the broken arm he sustained against Samoa in the Autumn Tests, while Sale Sharks back-row Josh Strauss, Glasgow Warriors lock Tim Swinson and uncapped Glasgow Warriors hooker James Malcolm are also included.
The new additions replace Saracens centre Duncan Taylor (head) and Toulouse lock Richie Gray (calf), who are yet to recover sufficiently, as well as Glasgow’s D’Arcy Rae and Edinburgh trio Magnus Bradbury, Nathan Fowles and Murray McCallum. team, especially Adam.
“We want to play but you have to be smart around it. We thought there was a little bit of solace in behind them and we probably missed a couple of opportunities to sneak the ball in there but overall the kicking options were strong.”
For the youngster, he was just delighted to be able to step in and show what he can do.
“They came here to play and we love to play as well so it made for a good game,” he said. “After last week [drawing 15-15 at the Dragons] it was massive.
“If your first-choice [fly half] is leaving, it opens up opportunities, but a lot of boys have been playing well in this 10 jersey, so it’s important if I get an opportunity again I go out and do it.”