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'A fired up England with a point to prove are always a dangerous team'

By Josh Raisey
Scotland/ PA

England head to Edinburgh this weekend for the Calcutta Cup with a point to prove, almost a year to the day after Scotland earned their first win against the ‘Auld Enemy’ at Twickenham since 1983.

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Eddie Jones’ side have had their share of disruptions in the build up to the Guinness Six Nations, from positive Covid-19 tests and injuries to hotel fires and night time evacuations. Then again, Scotland have had their injury woes too, losing loosehead Jamie Bhatti this week.

When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 16:45 (UK) on Saturday February 5th at BT Murrayfield Stadium and will be broadcast live on BBC in the UK, Virgin Media in Ireland, Stan Sport in Australia and SuperSport in South Africa.

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Head-to-head
England boast a healthy record of 76 wins to Scotland’s 44 since their first match in 1871, with 19 draws along the way. However, Scotland have proven to Jones’ nemesis since his first game in charge of England in 2016, which was a win against Scotland. The Australian only has a 50 percent win rate in Calcutta Cup matches, which is his joint worst record for England, tied with his record against the All Blacks.

Match odds from bet365
bet365 expect a close game and have the handicap on England at +2, with 5/1 odds that Scotland win with a margin of 1-5 points. There are also 28/1 odds that no tries are scored in the match.

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Prediction

Former England No.8 Lawrence Dallaglio raised some concerns about the experience in the England squad on BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight this week, but he believes England will go up to Edinburgh with a point to prove.

“There’s not a lot of experience there,” the former England captain said. “Could [Sam] Simmonds and [Alex] Dombrandt have 20 more caps each? I believe they could. Should they be further down the experience route?

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“It’s going to be a big challenge for this England team. They go up there with a wonderful fly-half but hasn’t played a huge amount at international level. It doesn’t seem to faze him but we’ll soon find out. So some big question marks for Eddie Jones to answer.

“But a fired up England with a point to prove are always a dangerous team and they’ve lost three out of the last four Calcutta Cup and I think we need to remind ourselves about that. You’re in an England dressing room, you need to redress the balance and go up there and make a statement. That’s going to be tough, because Scotland are in good shape, they’ll fancy their chances.”

*Odds accurate as of 02/02/22.

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J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

39 Go to comments
A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
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