Scotland can blow England away with early blitz

HERE’S a statistic you won’t hear Eddie Jones boasting about during the build-up to Saturday’s Calcutta Cup showdown. His England team are the slowest starters in this year’s Six Nations, having never been ahead at half-time in any of their first three games.

They went in at the break level at 9-9 against France, were 13-8 behind against Wales and 10-5 down against Italy.

Granted, they came back to win on each occasion, but catch them cold early on and Vern Cotter’s men will have every chance of laying the foundations for Scotland’s first victory at Twickenham since 1983.

Expect the Kiwi to order his players to attack England from the first whistle.

With Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Finn Russell hopefully in the mood, and with a bit of luck on their side, Scotland are capable of building up a big enough early lead to be out of sight before England know what has hit them.

Overall, Jones’ (right) team are not as good as he likes to make out, despite sitting top of the table. They scraped home by three points at home to France, had to rely on a late try to beat Wales by five and were bamboozled at the ruck by the Italians.

The likes of tighthead prop Dan Cole, who was monstered by Gordon Reid when Glasgow Warriors beat Leicester 43-0 in Europe, isn’t the player he once was. Ditto James Haskell.

Much has been made about the return to the back row of Billy Vunipola. He has only 72 minutes of action under his belt since November after playing for Saracens last weekend in his comeback from injury. Hardly perfect preparation. This week, the Scotland coaching team and senior players have been doing their best to publicly play down their chances. Don’t be fooled. Once the huge black-out screens that cover Scotland’s indoor training sessions go up to keep away prying eyes, the mood becomes upbeat, with everyone privately confident of victory. Greig Laidlaw, his foot still in a moon boot after his tournament-ending knee injury, remains an influential figure off the pitch and has been helping to keep morale high. Likewise Kelly Brown, who spoke to the players earlier this week about his experiences of Twickenham. Everything is looking good for Scotland. Provided they can run in a few early tries — off the back of seven in their first three matches — there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t end our 34-year wait for a win at English HQ.