6N Round 4: The Calcutta Cup clash

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ENGLAND v SCOTLAND  
Saturday 14 February 2015
KO 17:00 (GMT)
Twickers

Live on BBC1

Referee: Romain Poitey (FFR)
AR1: George Clancy (IRFU)  
AR2: Marius Mitrea (FIR)
TMO: Ben Skeen (NZR)

Teams:

ENGLAND

M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson (Bath), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), J Nowell (Exeter); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), D Attwood (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: T Youngs (Leicester), M Vunipola (Saracens), K Brookes (Newcastle), G Parling (Leicester), T Wood (Northampton), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), D Cipriani (Sale), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).

SCOTLAND

Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); Dougie Fife (Edinburgh), Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott (Edinburgh), Tommy Seymour, Finn Russell (both Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (captn) (Gloucester); Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Euan Murray (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Hamilton (Saracens), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Cowan (London Irish) David Denton (Edinburgh).

Replacements: Fraser Brown, Ryan Grant (both Glasgow Warriors), Geoff Cross (London Irish), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier), Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors), Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Greig Tonks (both Edinburgh)


The result of the Ireland game beforehand could make things very interesting from an English perspective. Tournament could be blown wide open, & see England looking for a big score with an eye to next weekend & things coming down to points difference.

For us, there's nothing at stake bar pride & some melted Indian Rupees.

Twickenham was always going to be tough, but given how things have gone this tournament I'm absolutely dreading this match.
Our record down South is more embarrassing than Natalie Bennett on LBC! 32 long years since we last won at Twickenham and in the last half century we've managed just one other win in 1971. Stretch things back to the whole century and we can double our total with wins in 1926 & 1938!

Fear we'll see a similar game to England - Italy, valiant start by us & some swashbuckling stuff before ultimately being crushed in the final quarter. Although if we 'defend' the maul like we did against Italy the score will be worse.

On the bright side though, scoring any points would be an improvement on last years Calcutta Cup match...

Preconditions people? Am I being too gloomy?

AAAARRGGGHHH!!! How hard is it to pass backwards FFS??!!

England started so well in the 6 Nations, destroying Wales who , as usual, progress throughout the tourney. Is this Lancaster's coaching or selection?

Poite has been pretty awful - luckily to both teams!

Oh God i hate Poite

Tackling aside, we're actually playing pretty well!

Dear me this is poor

Denton's carrying has been infinitely better than Beattie's was in the first three matches

Scotland playing better rugby…but , 2nd half I just can't see them sustaining this.

England are very poor

Both full backs have put in great try-savers

How the hell are we winning this????

I really think Lancasters position needs to be under the microscope now...we just look disjointed.

More so his coaches. What are Farrell and Catt doing. Even Rowntrees work doesn't seem to be as effective.

Should Lancaster walk if Scotland win?

I'm absolutely flabbergasted by this scoreline given how bad our tackling is

England defense sooooo narrow

How are England behind? Criminal. If the championship goes to points, leaving this many points on the field will lose it.

kingelderfield wrote:Should Lancaster walk if Scotland win?

No of course not, but to do so would eb a disaster for England's RWC campaign

Bizarre first half

I think Scotland have been the better team.

Poor poor England.

I'm utterly speechless

i think england didnt treat scotland with the respect they needed to be in the first half.

hope that will be put right in the second half

god poite is awful. agree to both sides. after the clean breakdown that barnes created in cardiff, poite really does look over-tolerant.

Scotland are looking very good when they get ball in hand. England need to pull their socks up in the second half or they will lose as sure as hell.

Need to slow it down, this loose style is suiting the more mobile Scottish pack. Crazy game.

Well well well, really thought that England would run away with this but Scotland have shown quite a lot of attacking intent and that has shocked England. Still think that England will kick on after 55-60 minute mark and win comfortably.

Do I have this right?

England has to win by 9 to win the Six Nations, otherwise Ireland wins?

Awful from both teams.

Me too RDW

So chaps - honours even in the backs ( so far )

england need to outscore by 20 in the second half if they hope to win the 6Ns

doesnt look likely

Biltong wrote:Do I have this right?

England has to win by 9 to win the Six Nations, otherwise Ireland wins?

one more round to go...

No intensity, no cohesion, no support, narrow defence, slow around the rucks, AWFUL slow ball due to as usual rubbish rucking and woeful slow passing from Young. Etc. Etc. Been much more impressed by Scotland, particularly out wide.

Can we please just end the game now

Biltong wrote:Do I have this right?

England has to win by 9 to win the Six Nations, otherwise Ireland wins?

Theres another round after this week....

Biltong wrote:Do I have this right?

England has to win by 9 to win the Six Nations, otherwise Ireland wins?

There's another round next week Bil, so we don't know what scores teams need yet.

Think its fair to say England need to tighten this up, Scotland need to keep it frantic!

Gwlad wrote:

kingelderfield wrote:Should Lancaster walk if Scotland win?

No of course not, but to do so would eb a disaster for England's RWC campaign

Really? I don't think so. For what he bring's to the set up, I'd have thought that any one of number of coaches could take the reigns from here.

He's hardly Mr inspirational is he?

Oh...and no kick chase.

It's simply infathomable that Scotland are leading.

the england coaching team will be having words with poite about the scrum at half time i am sure.

That is the poorest half I have seen from England in a long long time. You really cannot excuse that.

Wrf. Is guscock having a tissue about Hogg

England showing these guys how to do it!

How can you play so well and so poorly at the same time?

burrell needs to have an awesome second half or he will have lost the jersey

Hamilton injury & Harley's pile driving off Swinson are going to create problems

kingelderfield wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

kingelderfield wrote:Should Lancaster walk if Scotland win?

No of course not, but to do so would eb a disaster for England's RWC campaign

Really? I don't think so. For what he bring's to the set up, I'd have thought that any one of number of coaches could take the reigns from here.

He's hardly Mr inspirational is he?

Whats beginning to annoy me is after every poor game...its " we must learn from this" ..but they genuinely don't appear to be learning.

Oh God look at Andy Nicol's smug face

TheRugbyMaster wrote:It's simply infathomable that Scotland are leading.

no it isn't, it may be unfathomable though but i think that england have been poor in execution and scotland have played with ambition

Is he drunk

Laidlaw has been much better than he was against Italy attacking-wise so fair play to him.

quinsforever wrote:burrell needs to have an awesome second half or he will have lost the jersey

I think that ship has sailed...i did say it should be Eastmond, a proper footballer, but would anyone listen to me? No...