George Ford warns England of ‘niggly’ Scotland as Calcutta Cup buildup begins
George Ford has warned his England teammates to brace for Scotland’s “niggly game”, with a number of reinforcements to boost Steve Borthwick’s side as they seek to end a desperate Calcutta Cup run next week.
England have beaten Scotland once in their past six attempts but Manu Tuilagi, Ollie Lawrence, Luke Cowan-Dickie and George Martin are ready to be included in the squad this week as they begin preparations on Wednesday for the trip to Murrayfield.
Ford and co came unstuck at Murrayfield two years ago after CowanDickie’s second-half yellow card while in 2018 he was targeted by Ryan Wilson as both teams headed down the tunnel before the match, sparking a melee as Owen Farrell confronted the Scotland back-row.
In 2020 Eddie Jones was left furious when one of his staff members, Neil Craig, was struck on the head by a beer bottle as England made their way into the stadium. Though subsequent footage appeared to show the bottle had blown in England’s direction, as opposed to being thrown, the Scottish Rugby Union issued a swift apology and improved safety measures for their 2022 visit.
“They’ve had our number for the last few years, for various reasons,” Ford said. “They’re a dangerous team, it’s always a niggly game, especially up in Murrayfield when you’re an Englishman going up there … going down the tunnel, that was a few years ago now.
“Jokes aside, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that stuff. It’s the beauty of going up to Scotland and trying to win. All those things come into it and matter, so we’ll make sure we’re ready.
“We want to stick to our plan and not give the opposition what they want. They’re obviously trying to impose what they want on you, too. It’s a battle of that, and a lot of it comes down to who wins the game physically and with their intent and attitude.
“You’ve got to be good off the back of it, course you have. They’re frosty, those England-Scotland games, they’re right up there.”
The returns of Tuilagi and Lawrence would bring a welcome addition of backline power while Martin starred on his most recent England outing – the World Cup semi-final defeat – and Cowan-Dickie would add valuable experience to the front-row ranks. Tuilagi has been out since Christmas with a groin injury while Lawrence has had a hip problem. After the victory against Wales last Saturday, however, Borthwick was hopeful the pair would be available to train this week.
England have not won three Six Nations
matches in a row since 2020 – the last time they beat Scotland – but Ford said: “We know the challenge of what Murrayfield holds, the way Scotland are playing at the minute and the challenges of a Test match.
“As a team we want to keep improving, winning and there’s no better way than to come up against Scotland next and the other two [Ireland and France] after that, as if you’re beating those teams you’re doing something right.”