This game has been a perpetual flop – but today could be different
Revitalised hosts can help end this fixture’s cycle of drubbings and mud-spattered slogs
Statistics confirm what the senses have been telling us: Calcutta Cup matches in Edinburgh have become attritional and soporific, which is why both sets of supporters will be glad today if Scotland’s new spirit of adventure runs free.
The least exciting and most weather-lashed of the big Natwest Six Nations fixtures is due an escape from the entertainment grave, in which historical sabre-rattling has been a poor substitute for uplifting rugby. But hopes are high this time that Scotland coach Gregor Townsend’s attacking philosophy will stop a rivalry that dates from 1879 descending into another muddy grapple.
A personal view has been that Scotlandengland games are the least satisfying of the big calendar dates in British sport: a build-up followed by a let-down. The records support this view. At Murrayfield, the matchup has become painfully low-scoring, and Scotland have not registered a try against “the Nigels”, as they used to call them, since Simon Danielli touched down in 2004 – 14 years ago.
The pattern in Auld Enemy clashes has been for England to overwhelm Scotland in the London suburbs and join them in a joy-killer in Edinburgh. Thus the lowest-scoring Six Nations encounter at Twickenham still manages to beat the highestscoring one at Murrayfield.
Only 259 points have been scored in nine Calcutta Cup matches at Murrayfield – an average of 28.8 per game – way below the 43.7 average across all fixtures in the competition. Edinburgh crowds have witnessed only 16 tries, at 1.8 per game: again, well down on the tournament norm of 4.1 per match. Through any statistical lens, Scotlandengland has been a slog, often in wintry conditions, with historical baggage and a hatred of losing to the ancient foe weighing heavily on both nations.
This is a modern problem, less often seen in the amateur era, when there were dreary games but a surfeit of passion and colourful personalities to keep the story boiling. In those days, to hear that the Calcutta Cup itself had been kicked up and down Princes Street in Edinburgh (in 1988) by players from both sides was no great surprise – especially as kicking was so popular in the actual games.
“I remember watching as a kid growing up; watching the great Scotland sides – Gavin Hastings at
‘We play to our strengths which are speed, quick ball and workrate’
full-back, Scott Hastings, Finlay Calder, John Jeffrey, Colin Deans,” Eddie Jones says. “They had great teams who played with passion and conviction and that’s what Gregor is trying to get with Scotland so it’s a big occasion for them.”
The most memorable Angloscottish clashes tend to come with a Bill Mclaren voice-over in the head, before Scotland’s long culture shock from the game turning professional rendered the national team so vulnerable in the face of England’s numerical might.
Last year England crushed them 61-21 at Twickenham. Twelve months earlier, Jones’s debut as England coach produced the passable spectacle of a 15-9 Murrayfield win for the guests. But the 2014 match in Edinburgh was the nadir: a 20-0 England win. On that sobering day for Scottish rugby, which led eventually to an upswing, the home side spent only three per cent of the game inside England’s 22-metre line and missed 27 tackles. The Murrayfield fare in 2012 (Scotland 6 England 13) was commonly described as “scrappy” and the 2010 game, though drawn at 15-15, was also unenthusiastically reviewed. Scotland beat England at home in 2008 – but with four kicks from Chris Paterson and a fifth from Dan Parks. You get the drift: Murrayfield clashes are due an injection of Scottish tries and end-to-end unpredictability.
Stunned after a 34-7 defeat by Wales in Cardiff, but revived by the
32-26 win over France, Scotland would settle for any kind of victory today, but intend to be true to their new selves. Before this year’s tournament kicked off, Townsend said: “There is no turning back. We play to our strengths – speed, dynamism, quick ball. And work rate. Nothing can happen unless the work rate is high.”
And this week Hamish Watson said: “England still defend very well, but just looking at ourselves as a team, I think compared to 10 years ago, five years ago, we score a lot more tries, so we’ve been working on that. We are scoring more tries against most of the other teams, so we’ve got to try to do that against England. Although if it comes down to kicks we’ll take it.”
It helps that Scotland won seven of their 11 games in 2017 to reach fifth place in the world rankings. They beat Ireland and Wales in Edinburgh, and Australia in Sydney and at Murrayfield. Their last championship win was 1999 – the year before the Six Nations came into being, and there have been four wooden spoons since then.
Jones started this year’s tournament teasing Scotland, saying they were the Six Nations favourites and the coming force in Europe. England will aim to shred those high hopes, but the contest should be a good deal better than a cure for insomnia. Townsend has said all along: “We want to put our game out there.”
Showtime, at last.