Gregor Townsend believes Saturday’s match away to oldest rivals England is simply what Scotland have to get their Six Nations marketing campaign again on monitor.
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Scotland head to Twickenham following a 32-18 second-round defeat by Eire, with their eleventh straight loss to the double-defending champions following a tournament-opening win over Italy.
Scotland, nonetheless, at the moment are bidding for a fifth straight victory over England one thing they final achieved within the nineteenth Century with rugby union’s authentic worldwide fixture first staged in 1871.
Townsend himself has presided over 5 Calcutta Cup wins in seven video games in opposition to England, with one draw a 38-38 thriller at Twickenham six years in the past since being appointed Scotland coach in 2017.
“It means a huge amount,” stated Townsend of enjoying England after saying his facet on Thursday.
“We play for a separate trophy and it is the fixture our nation and supporters look forward to more than any others.
“And it’s the center sport of the Six Nations and a sport we want a response in as a result of we misplaced the final sport.”
The 51-year-old former Scotland playmaker added: “It’s the most historic fixture in our sport and it provides as much as lots.” – ‘Symptom-free’ Russell’ –
Scotland hopes of another win were boosted when co-captain Finn Russell was included at fly-half on Thursday despite suffering a concussion following a sickening clash of heads with team-mate Darcy Graham against Ireland that has ruled the wing out of the England game.
“They’ve each been coaching rather well, they’ve gone by way of the correct protocols and so they’ve handed each stage,” said Townsend after both backs had to leave the field early on against Ireland.
“Finn, we felt, was symptom-free a lot earlier and clearly did not have as a lot of a head knock as Darcy did.”
Townsend added: “Darcy is progressing rather well…He is on to the following stage of his coaching however we simply felt this week was too early to do full contact so we’re giving him that additional week to recuperate.”
Kyle Rowe replaces Graham on the wing, with former captain Jamie Ritchie coming in for Matt Fagerson in the back row and prop Pierre Schoeman taking over from Rory Sutherland.
England lost their Six Nations opener away to Ireland, but Steve Borthwick’s men ended a run of seven straight defeats by top-tier opposition with a dramatic 26-25 win over France at Twickenham.
“They’ve performed persistently properly know for some time,” said Townsend.
“The summer time tour final 12 months in New Zealand they confirmed what a high quality facet they’re and in November they had been concerned in some actually tight fixtures with some high quality opposition.
“They had a very good win against France and I am sure they will be very confident particularly at home.”
However he added: “We believe in this group and they have got another opportunity to show who we are in attack and defence and bring our best rugby both sides of the ball.”
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