JOE MARLER’S COLUMN

The hardest part about playing Scotland is that half their players have english accents. You’ll hear a lad from Surrey in the corner of your ear and then you realise he’s wearing a blue shirt!

Let’s be honest, a lot of their players declare themselves available for Scotland because they’re not good enough to play for england.

I was listening to Ryan Wilson, their injured flanker, on the radio the other day and he sounds more english than I do.

Wilson sparked the rumble in the tunnel last year and a few of the english players will be disappointed not to get another crack at him today.

There will have been a few whispers in the corridors about last year and the message will be: ‘Take your shot and take it hard.’

That defeat was a dark day for england but will Scotland make it a double today? There’s more chance of me wearing a kilt. Scotland are decimated by injuries

to some of their best players. They won’t admit it, but they’ll definitely be scared. They’ll arrive at Twickenham with a lot of nerves.

None of their players would make england’s starting XV — although Finn Russell and hamish Watson would get a spot on the bench.

Finn’s a shining light. he can do some unbelievable things on a rugby field and he’s their stringpuller. england will go after him because, if he has a stinker, then everyone around him will start panicking. In the pack, Watson’s their biggest threat. he’s powerful and he bounced off Welsh tacklers like a pinball last week.

But Russell and Watson can’t win the game on their own. Scotland have not won at Twickenham since 1983 and that history will be at the back of their mind.

Twickenham hasn’t been their happy hunting ground and the 2017 Calcutta Cup was one of my favourite days in an england shirt. Scotland gave it the big ’un in the press all week, fancied their chances and we stuck 60 points on them.

We ran riot in the first half. We had spoken about the Gray brothers, Jonny and Richie, as their talismen. Jogging in at half-time, I saw them ahead of me. I barged between them and said: ‘Lads, any danger of you guys turning up? It’s like a team-run out there!’

There’s a chance england could be playing for the title, if Wales lose to Ireland earlier in the day. Someone in the backroom will let them know what’s going on in Cardiff and, win or lose, england will want to go out with a bang.

I think they’ll win by 20 points — or a few more if Wales choke in Cardiff earlier in the day.

BIG JOE’S NO GO

IT WAS no surprise whatsoever to see Joe Cokanasiga left out of the team.

That’s eddie all over. everyone’s talking about him and d bigging him up, so eddie’s trying - to keep the lad grounded. he took a similar approach when Maro Itoje came through.

You don’t want another Mathew Tait situation where someone’s thrown in at 18 and d is left scarred for the rest of his career.