I'm baffled by Gregor Townsend's Calcutta Cup calls - Andy Goode

The Calcutta Cup is always one of the highlights of the rugby calendar but this time it feels there’s even more on the line, perhaps even Gregor Townsend’s job.

Scotland should be approaching this game with thoughts of challenging for the title, given the players they have and the form they’ve shown recently in the URC and Champions Cup, but defeat in Italy means it feels like they’re staring down the barrel instead.

It’d be a big shock if Scottish Rugby were to pull the trigger mid-tournament, although lose in Wales next weekend and all bets will be off, but you do get the sense that his nine-year reign will come to an end at the conclusion of the Six Nations if they lose to England.

That might seem extreme or knee-jerk to some but I can’t see them beating both France at home and Ireland away so a top half finish will look almost impossible if they lose their opening two games and that should have been the bare minimum.

There are those who will say that fourth place is par, given they’ve only finished higher than that twice in the last dozen years, and Townsend has definitely progressed the team in attack during his tenure but this is his 100^th Test in charge and it’s reasonable to expect more.

Fittingly, as he raises his bat for a century of Tests as head coach, he is under a ton of pressure and maybe he and his side produce their best results when their backs are against the wall. They certainly save their best for the Auld Enemy, that’s for sure.

Scotland have won four of the last five meetings between the teams but they’re bigger underdogs than they have been in most of those recent contests, given the respective form of the two sides, even with home advantage and some of Townsend’s selections are simply baffling.

How Blair Kinghorn can’t get in this team, not even in the match day 23, with all of his versatility as well as his undoubted quality when he starts week in, week out for probably the best club team in the world in Toulouse is beyond me.

Duhan van der Merwe is a more understandable omission given his lack of form this season but he has been Player of the Match in each of the last three Calcutta Cup clashes and poses a different threat to anyone else the Scots have.

It’s no disrespect to Tom Jordan or Jamie Dobie but there’s no doubt that Byron McGuigan, who has done a terrific job with England’s defence since coming in, Richard Wigglesworth and their players would have been more concerned about the x-factor that Kinghorn and van der Merwe possess.

Darcy Graham is at least waiting in the wings among the replacements but he completes the trio of British & Irish Lions back three players left out of the starting XV and now another Lion in Pierre Schoeman has been relegated to the bench.

It’s fair to say he didn’t have his best game last week and perhaps Townsend is hoping for more of an impact coming off the bench but they’re losing a lot of experience and dynamism with him not starting.

Leaving out Schoeman and Grant Gilchrist means there are now no Edinburgh players at all in the starting XV and they have been struggling in the URC but Jamie Ritchie is back in despite Perpignan’s Top 14 struggles, although they have won a few games of late.

George Turner, who has started just one PREM game all season for out-of-form Harlequins, starts at hooker and his back-up is Dave Cherry, who is 35-years-old and plying his trade for Vannes in PRO D2.

With just two professional teams and a much smaller player pool, Scotland might not be blessed with the same strength in depth as England but Gregor Hiddleston is young, hungry, has scored seven tries in his last 10 games for high-flying Glasgow and still can’t get a game.

Whereas Townsend’s selection policy is confusing, Steve Borthwick’s could not be more straightforward and that comes with the territory when you’re on a run of 12 consecutive victories.

Fin Smith deserves a spot in the match day 23 but his inclusion ahead of Marcus Smith might cause a headache if there’s an early injury or two in the centres or back three given he isn’t quite as versatile as the Quins man.

Northampton’s general is more of a traditional fly-half, although he’d be able to do a job at inside centre, so injuries might mean we see Ben Earl deployed at centre again.

Much has been made of the fact we saw him there last week but it’s all well and good for a brief spell against a poor Wales side, you wouldn’t want to have to station him there for an extended period with Finn Russell pulling the strings in front of him.

That aside, the impact of the bench has become a huge feature for England over the past 12 months and it was probably the most underwhelming aspect of what was a decent day at the office at Allianz Stadium last weekend.

Borthwick will be asking for more from the likes of Tom Curry, Henry Pollock and now Alex Coles and Jamie George and there’s no secret to how the men in white will approach the game, even if they are full of confidence and have potent threats out wide.

It’ll be all about physicality first and getting the upper hand up front in a way that other teams have managed to more often than they have against the Scots in recent years.

The temptation can be there to throw the ball around when you’re heavy favourites as they were last week but they managed the game well and it’ll be more of the same in Edinburgh in terms of utilising the kicking game, forcing mistakes with line speed and targeting the breakdown.

They’ll be pragmatic to begin with and try to build a lead, forcing Russell to feel like he has to pull rabbits out of hats as he has done in this fixture many times before, but they know now they have the tools to change it up as the game wears on.

People are understandably talking about England’s title credentials, even prematurely salivating at the prospect of a potential Grand Slam decider in Paris on Super Saturday, but Borthwick won’t have looked past this one and it is an acid test for his men.

England have won just once at Murrayfield in the last decade and they’re ticking all the boxes at the moment but they lost in Dublin last year and, while the wins away against a somewhat rotated Argentina last summer were impressive, taking some big away scalps is the next challenge for these players to prove they can rise to.

Scotland losing in Rome on the opening weekend is the worst thing that could have happened from an England perspective but these are the games they have to start winning if they want to win titles and prove they’re going to be a contender at World Cups too.

This fixture doesn’t need any extra hype but it has even more spice than usual this time around and all eyes will be on the home coaching box, Townsend has backed these players and needs them to deliver the Calcutta Cup more than ever this year.