IMPRESSIVE

“We’ve been very impressed with him at training – he’s worked really well. What impressed us most in training was his work-rate off the ball”

Fraser Strachan in the midfield. Winger Kyle Rowe is the only alteration to an otherwise unchanged back-three as Logan Trotter reverts to full-back.

“On the whole I don’t see a huge difference in the personnel we have in the squad,” said Redpath. “I think we’re all very similar. This game is a great opportunity for the lads to push for the fourth match.”

In the opening two losses to Italy and Argentina the young Scots played a lot of good rugby but were noticeably outmuscled by bigger specimens. Tonight will be no less of a physical challenge and the odds favour England condemning the Scots to a third

TOWNSEND

0 Bryan Redpath has revamped the front row for England clash. straight defeat but Redpath feels there have been positives to take so far away from cold, hard results. “The Italy game was probably the harder one to take. That was a massive opportunity for us,” he said.

“We were 23-10 up and lost a bitofcomposure.thenagainst Argentina they did well to get back to 15-13 and then disappointingly conceded a couple of tries late on. I look at all the stats of where we are and we’re actually performing at a higher level than two defeats would suggest, we’re just not taking some of the opportunities.

“We are top five in the tournament on most things, except for scoring tries. We just need a little bit of confidence about when and how to use the opportunities we’ve been creating. We’re ranked highest in terms of possession, also on turnovers conceded, carries we’re top four, same in line breaks and tackle breaks. But we’re not converting and that’s the hardest part for me.

“We’re on the right track we just need to learn to execute under a little more pressure than they’ve been under before. We are competitive.”