Hoping for some-finn special
Stuart Hogg and Allan Massie hail ‘magician’ Russell ahead of Calcutta Cup clash.
Eddie Jones was up to his old tricks this week. The England coach wondered if the burden of expectation would weigh too heavily on Scottish shoulders at Twickenham. He also pointed out that the Scots do not possess a “monopoly on pride” when it comes to the Calcutta Cup. In essence, he was questioning the bottle of the visitors.
Jones likes to make mischief but on this occasion he has history on his side. As if we need reminding, it’s 38 years since Scotland won at Twickenham.
In addition, England have lost just one of their last 12 Six Nations clashes with scotland( winning nine and drawingtwo ), with the reverse coming atbt Murrayfield in 2018. There have been four defeat sin total against the scots in the 21 years of the six nations, with the others coming in Edinburgh in 2000, 2006 and 2008.
This years marks the 150 th anniversary of the world’ s oldest rugby fixture and england lead overall 76-43, with 19 of the 138 games finishing in a draw.
To mark the occasion, every Scotland player will have the corresponding name from the 1871 team embroidered on their jersey.
Stuart Hogg’s shirt will bear the name of Francis Moncrieff, the man who captained Scotland to victory in that first international at Raeburn Place. Hogg said he intends to read up about the trailblazer before the match but the current skipper knows he would stamp his own moniker on the history of this match if his side were to win this afternoon.
The Hawick man is certainly not cowed by Jones’ barbs and, equally, he refused to take the bait. Instead he offered a measured assessment of what it would take for Scotland to lay their Twickenham bogey.
“If we go into the game full of confidence and belief in ourselves as individuals and as a collective we give ourselves every opportunity to win,” Hogg said. “For us to go down there and win will take a complete 80 minute performance, both side soft he ball. That is a challenge every single one of us is excited about.”
The full-back believes scotland can take heart from the way they held out against wales in last october’ s delayed Six Nations match in Llanelli. The victory enabled the scots to end an 18- year win less run in the principality and was achieved in adversity as Scotland lost first finn russell and then his replacement Adam Hastings to injury.
The visitors had to be adapt quickly and ended the game with Hogg filling in as an emergency stand-off while replacement scrum-half Scott Steele played on the wing to allow Blair Kinghorn to switch to full-back. “We had a couple of injuries at ten there and our game had to change going into the last ten, 15 minutes,” Hogg recalled. “We have a huge amount of knowledge and experience of the game in the squad so hopefully we can close out games. But there is no point us chatting about closingout games unless we get the first 20 minutes right and give ourselves every opportunity to win.”
Easier said than done, of course. Scotland have started poorly on their last two visits to Twickenham with contrasting results. An early yellow card for Fraser Brown in the 2017 match put the visitors on the back foot and they never recovered, losing 61-21 in what was Vern Cotter’s last season in charge.
Two years later, the scots pulled off the most improbable comeback of all time when they salvaged a 38-38 draw after trailing 31-0 and outscored their hosts by six tries to five.
It was a remarkable achievement and seven of the match-day 23 will be involved today. Hogg missed the game through injury but knows scotland can ill afford a repeat of those opening 31 minutes.
“England like to get out the blocks
firing and they are a bloody hard team to beat if they get good front ball,” he said. “If you look at the last couple of times we have been at Twickenham they have had a real clinical edge and they have attacked early doors and we have ended up chasing the game and our game plan goes out the window.
“We believe we have a defensive system that can win games and I am excited for us to get the chance to express ourselves.”
When asked if the focus was more about stopping england rather than trying to take the game to the hosts, Hogg was emphatic.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “If we have that clinical edge in our attack and we take our opportunities to get that scoreboard ticking over then we are in a very good place.
“I have been around long enough to realise you have to be switched on both side soft he ball. if we front up defensively, are clinical in attack, we will grow in confidence in the first 20 minutes an diam not looking further ahead than that.”
Russell was instrumental in Scotland’s comeback two years ago and the stand-off has been reintegrated back into Gregor Townsend’s squad after his gap year. The consensus is that he is playing better than ever, with his two-and-a-half years in france adding new dimensions to an already bewildering array of talents.
Reports this week suggest he has trained well and is in good spirits, with all bridges mended.
“I’ve loved the way Finn has come back into camp,” said Hogg. “The last couple of week she has been outstanding.he’ s really coached the boys around the park and spoke incredibly well in huddles and meetings.
“I’m absolutely delighted to have a guy like that back and I believe he’s got one of the best kicking games in world rugby and hopefully he can get his bag of tricks out and cause England some damage.”
“If we go into the game full of confidence and belief in ourselves as individuals and as a collective we give ourselves every opportunity to win. for us to go down there and win will take a complete 80 minute performance, both sides of the ball”
“If we have that clinical edge in our attack and we take our opportunities to get that scoreboard ticking over then we are in a very good place”