Category: Scotland Rugby

• Captain calls on his team to ‘create our own history’
• Assistant coach Tom Harrison: ‘there’s a nastiness to us’

England have vowed to show their nasty side against Scotland on Saturday with the captain, Maro Itoje, calling on his team to buck the trend of recent history by clinching the Calcutta Cup for the first time in five years.

Buoyed by their one-point victory over France last time out, England have been champing at the bit all week with Tom Curry saying there was an edginess to training on Monday and Ben Earl revealing the squad were subjecting to a series of video clips showcasing their failings in recent defeats by Scotland.

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Gregor Townsend seems to know just what is needed to unravel their Six Nations rivals with a peerless record

Among the many questions hanging over the 132nd Calcutta Cup, the hardest to answer might just be exactly how many times you need to beat the English before they stop thinking of themselves as favourites for the next game. Since Gregor Townsend took over as head coach, Scotland have been unbeaten in six out of seven matches, including, count them, the last one, two, three, four in a row. And yet the English have contrived a way to arrive at this fixture, which could yet be a record-breaking fifth defeat, as odds-on favourites with every bookmaker, and on a wash of pundits’ promises about how their forwards are going to “monster the auld enemy”.

Well, Townsend knows exactly what those laurels are worth, and is happy enough to let England have them.

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• Co-captain recovers from injury for Six Nations clash
• ‘Every brain injury is different,’ says Gregor Townsend

Scotland will have the one player they could not afford to lose for their Calcutta Cup match against England, after their medical team confirmed that Finn Russell has recovered from his concussion in good time to play for them tomorrow.

Russell suffered the injury in the first half of their game against Ireland in the previous round, when he collided with Darcy Graham, but he was found to be symptom-free 24 hours later, and has since completed a 12-day return-to-play protocol before recommencing full contact training while the team were away in camp in Spain this week.

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In rating the teams it is the defending champions that look a cut above as the other sides struggle to find consistency

There was a suspicion of vulnerability to Ireland coming into the Six Nations but they have answered those questions in style so far. Perhaps we’d just become a bit complacent about their standards but, as the only side unbeaten after two rounds, they look formidable.

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Fly-half starred in England’s victory against France and is now set to face Scotland, the country of his father’s birth

As Gregor Townsend sweats on the availability of Finn Russell for next Saturday’s Calcutta Cup there may be a few wistful glances in the direction of England’s fly-halves. For Fin Smith, man of the match on his first Test start against France, has Scottish blood in his veins.

His grandfather, Tom Elliot, was from Galashiels – like Townsend – and represented Scotland and the British & Irish Lions as a loosehead prop. Smith’s father, Andrew, is from Dunfermline and met his wife, Judith, Tom’s daughter, at the London Scottish clubhouse. Smith Sr has eight England caps of his own but as a child would marvel at his grandfather’s collection, he and brother Angus regularly trying them on.

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• Six Nations updates, 2.15pm GMT kick-off at Murrayfield
• France 43-0 Wales | Sign up for The Breakdown | Mail Lee

Pre match reading

It’s 25 years since the Six Nations was created, thus rendering Scotland Five Nations champions in perpetuity. Relive the 2000 tournament here with this brilliant collection of images and memories.

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Twenty-five years on from the first Six Nations, Murrayfield hosts battle between two teams who have come a long way in a quarter of a century

And so we head back to where it all began. The Six Nations is a quarter of a century old. Wednesday will mark 25 years since its opening fixture on 5 February 2000, but of more visceral significance will be Saturday afternoon’s encounter at Murrayfield between Scotland and Italy, a rerun of that first match, bathed in sunshine, when Italy, the new arrivals, announced themselves to the old championship with a shattering 34-20 win over the champions.

Those not yet in middle age may balk at the phrase “champions Scotland”. But it is true. They were quite often champions back then. In 1999 they won the last Five Nations, outplaying the rest in what must still rank as the greatest championship of them all. England squeaked past them at Twickenham in round two, but Scotland had run rings round them all match, just as they would all-comers that year. When England fell to the most dramatic defeat of them all on the final Sunday, against Wales at Wembley, Scotland were crowned worthy champions, having thrashed France in Paris, no less, the day before.

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The former national rugby union captain has been spared jail for the domestic abuse of his estranged wife, Gill, after courts painted a grim picture of his off-pitch behaviour

Scotland has not always been blessed with rugby players of genuine world class but prime-time Stuart Hogg was a rare exception. At the height of his powers he was the Six Nations Player of the Year in successive seasons in 2016 and 2017, mixing acceleration and attacking intent with a just-try-and-stop-me attitude that set him apart from the average workaday pro.

The talented lad from Hawick was a big fish in a series of smallish pools – the Borders, Scottish rugby, Exeter – and grew accustomed to being hailed as king of his local oval-ball castle. While, behind closed doors, not being entirely the man his many fans thought him to be.

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• Hogg given community payback order with supervision
• Sentence for 32-year-old is an ‘alternative to custody’

The former Scotland rugby union captain Stuart Hogg will be supervised for a year as an alternative to jail after he admitted abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years.

He pleaded guilty to a single charge of domestic abuse of his ex-partner, Gillian Hogg, when he appeared at Selkirk Sheriff Court on 4 November. He admitted shouting and swearing, tracking her movements and sending her messages which were alarming and distressing in nature.

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Excitement and optimism abounded after two statement wins but result shows Schmidt’s work is just starting out

It had been a fortnight of razzle-dazzle and eye-catching headlines. Offloads and sidesteps, pyrotechnics and sliding tries in the corner had filled highlights reels and provided content for podcasts and think-pieces. There wasn’t a spare seat on the bandwagon. The hype train was chugging along at full throttle. Everyone wanted to know: Were the Wallabies back?

This was the reality check that Australian rugby needed. Because for all their brilliance in their record wins in London and Cardiff, they were handed a lesson here in Edinburgh. This 27-13 defeat serves as a timely reminder that for all the positivity that has been accrued this autumn, there are still more pressing questions that need answering.

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Sione Tuipulotu helped halt Australia’s autumn resurgence as the Scotland captain scored the opening try in an impressive 27-13 triumph

“Gervase Greene here in (very) early-morning Sydney, finding myself in the weird situation of hoping a rampant Wallabies can offset the national shame of our aged and hapless cricket team being trounced in the Perth Test. You’ll appreciate this is not a sentence we have had cause to utter in several decades…”

4 mins. A big clearing kick from Kinghorn forces Wright to find touch in his own half. The Scotland lineout is good, but as Russell looks to get the attack going the ball is spilled forward by Jones in midfield.

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• London-born Potter gets his debut at Murrayfield
• Suaalii starts with Kerevi banned after red card

Australia are trusting in some backline wizardry, handing a debut to the winger Harry Potter and returning Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to the starting lineup for the Scotland Test match.

Suaalii is set for his biggest examination yet in Wallabies gold with the cross-code superstar back as outside centre for the third leg of their British Isles grand slam bid at Murrayfield on Sunday.

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• Autumn Nations Series: Scotland 59-21 Portgual
• Wing takes try total to 29 in 41 appearances

Wing Darcy Graham equalled the record for the most tries for Scotland as they ran in a total of nine in a dominant 59-21 victory over Portugal in their Test at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Graham scored the third of Scotland’s five first-half tries to bring his total to 29 in 41 international appearances and equal Duhan van der Merwe’s record.

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• Former Scotland rugby captain admitted to single charge
• Sentencing for abuse of Gillian Hogg set for 5 December

The former Scotland rugby international Stuart Hogg has admitted abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years.

Hogg, 32, had been due to stand trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday but pleaded guilty to a single charge when he appeared at the court.

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• Scotland 57-17 Fiji
• Home side run in eight tries in Autumn Series opener

Darcy Graham notched four times to briefly move joint top of Scotland’s all-time try-scoring list, only for his fellow Edinburgh wing Duhan van der Merwe to climb back ahead of him with a late touchdown of his own in a comfortable 57-17 victory over Fiji at Murrayfield.

Glasgow centre Sione Tuipulotu kicked off his captaincy of Gregor Townsend’s team, but it was talismanic wing Graham who stole the show in his first Test outing since the World Cup defeat by Ireland in Paris 13 months ago.

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