Scots will have enough strength to withstand late English surge says calm Cotter

on the bench for tomorrow’s encounter, which will see the home side aiming to equal the world record of 18 consecutive Test wins.

Cotter said that he had not paid much attention to the pictures of a training ground whiteboard which seemed to suggest Vunipola could be in the starting line-up and is not surprised that his counterpart Eddie Jones will look to use him and other big-name replacements as impact players who finish the job and snuff out Scottish resistance.

“Billy has only played 70-odd minutes. I think his [Jones’] philosophy is: ‘Scotland will come down here and throw everything in it. We have a stronger bench, we’ll finish the game.’ That’s a scenario that seems fairly clear.

“It’s up to us to stop that. So we don’t want to use energy unnecessarily, we want to stop things quickly, we have to be smart with the ball. Then, hopefully, we can hold them when they make that surge at the end.

“We will have enough power in our legs. Our bench players are very aware of England’s strategy. And our boys are keen to impress.”

Despite the speculation earlier in the week, Cotter, pictured right, was not surprised to see Nathan Hughes in the No 8 berth. “We didn’t look at it [the whiteboard], we had a fair idea of what it would be,” said the Kiwi. “It was more about what we were doing but when we saw their team it confirmed what we thought it would be.

“Billy comes in and that strengthens them and puts them in a better position for this game. It just makes our task a little harder.”

While acknowledging the obvious strengths of the defending champions, Cotter was keen to talk up his own team and indicate that Scotland would not be intimidated by the occasion.

“They’re a good team but

Vern Cotter has called on his team to defy England’s “fairly clear” belief that Scotland won’t last the distance and will be blown away in the final quarter of tomorrow’s huge Calcutta Cup showdown at Twickenham.

The Scotland head coach leads a virtually unchanged squad from the win over Wales, with Hamishwatsoninfromthestart for the injured John Hardie and the uncapped Cornell du Preez on the bench the only alterations, in search of a first Triple Crown for 27 years, the ending of a 34-year hoodoo at Twickenham and the keeping alive of their championship hopes.

England have named their explosive back-row dangerman Billy Vunipola, who made a comeback from a knee injury for his clubsaracenslastweekend,