THOSE who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, or so the saying goes. As far as Scotland are concerned, however, it should perhaps be adapted to “those who dwell too much on the past...”.
Certainly, in this Twickenham week, neither players nor coaches have shown much enthusiasm for agonising over the team’s poor record there. The last win was in 1983, the last time Scotland escaped defeat six years later, but there is no similarity, other than the venue itself, between then and now.
Not a single member of the squad had been born when that victory was recorded, none of the coaching team was involved with Scottish rugby in any capacity, and the game itself was still amateur. Little wonder, then, that the players have given no more than a fleeting glance to such ancient history as they prepare for Saturday’s match, when they have a chance to make a little bit of history of their own.
“I guess we’ve spoken about it a little bit, but not really looked at it that much,” stand-off Finn Russell said when asked about that 34-year run without a Calcutta Cup win south of the Border. “We’re just going down there to try and win this game. That’s what we’re focusing on just now.
“We’re just trying to win the game at the weekend, and if that makes history then it’s a bit better. But we’re just looking to do as much as we can this week to get ourselves ready for the weekend.”
Scotland have already ended a couple of losing runs in this year’s Six Nations Championship – they won their opening game for the first time since 2006, and went on to beat Wales for the first time in 10 years. But again, Russell does not think the squad will be too motivated by the desire to end another unwanted record.
“No, I wouldn’t say we’d use it as motivation, because that’s all in the past,” he continued. “I try not to look behind. It’s looking ahead to what we can do as a team and how we can get best prepared for the game at the weekend.
“I suppose there are a lot of things on this game, but as a team we’re not really looking at all that. We’re just focusing on this game and that’s what we’ve done the whole tournament – and that’s why we’ve got a couple of results.”
Scotland assistant coach Nathan Hines suggested earlier this week that England could be ‘paralysed’ by the fear of defeat when they are so close to setting a new record of consecutive wins for a senior international side – at 17 they are currently two away. But Russell accepted that, after beating Ireland and Wales and so still being in with a chance of winning the title, Scotland will also be under pressure to perform on Saturday. “I’d say there is pressure on both teams.”
Vern Cotter will announce his team for the match today, and is expected to make a more conservative selection than last time, when he made five changes for the game against Wales. The one obligatory alteration for the head coach from the 23 who were on duty in that win 12 days ago will be in the back row, where John Hardie has been ruled out of this game and next week’s home match against Italy because of injury.
Hamish Watson should start alongside captain John Barclay and No 8 Ryan Wilson.
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