Fin Smith boots the game to life, sending the ball deep into Scottish territory. Here come the teams, filing past the fabled Calcutta Cup into a decent London evening. Some anthems first, then some rugby. Have a read while you wait…. Drop me an email with your thoughts on the match. Can Scotland do the five wins in a row?.
One change made by Steve Borthwick to the starting XV that overcame France as Ollie Chessum replaces George Martin at lock. Martin was moved to the bench, but a late injury means he is replaced by Bath’s Ted Hill. For Scotland, Finn Russell is passed fit to start after his clash of heads with D’Arcy Graham vs Ireland. The Edinburgh winger is not as lucky however and is replaced by Kyle Rowe. In the forwards, Pierre Schoeman returns at loosehead, with Rory Sutherland sent to the bench. Jamie Ritchie, who captained his side to victory at Twickenham in 2023, is back in the starting lineup, taking the place of Matt Fagerson who is among the subs.
England: Marcus Smith; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje (capt), Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Jack Willis. Replacements: Jamie George, Finn Baxter, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Harry Randall, Elliot Daly.
Scotland: Blair Kinghorn; Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe; Finn Russell (co-capt), Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson; Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge (co-capt), Jack Dempsey. Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Sam Skinner, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall.
At some point in our lives and careers, we’ve all had a really bad day at work. For example, I once crashed and entire mortgage system because the overnight patch I’d signed off on tried to put a three digit code in a two digit field. It was the late 1990s, and the system was so old it was likely designed by Alan Turing – none of these excuses helped. But a few days later, they gave me something simple to do and I relaxed with the ease of this task and built some confidence back up.
Scotland arrive in south west London after Ireland put a terrifying rampant ghoul of a ghost in their machine two weeks ago and Gregor Townsend’s men will take some comfort that they have an easier job today. Beating England is something Scotland has become highly accustomed to, and they attempt to do it today for an historic fifth time on the trot.
England players and fans will not take kindly to this narrative, factual though it is, as they look to build on a dramatic, fortifying win over France in the last round; the forwards, led by a rejuvenated Tom Curry, coming into their own in the second half. Ireland showed that if you knock Scotland around a bit early on then the pressure splinters their plans, this could be a way for the home side to stop the recent losing run.
