'That was huge for us': Scotland's Twickenham victory built belief

Defence coach Steve Tandy believes memories of last year’s Twickenham triumph can help Scotland as they bid to retain the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield this Saturday.

The Scots pulled off their first away win over England since 1983 when they won 11-6 last February, albeit there were no supporters present due to the Covid lockdown.

“I think it adds belief and confidence being able to produce those performances away from home,” said Tandy.

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“Obviously, there was no crowd there but it was still Twickenham against an outstanding England team. That was huge for us.

“You start to build more belief in your own performances and around your game. It was an unbelievable day but it is just a memory now. We want to create more and we need to put in another huge performance come Saturday.”

Scotland are optimistic about their prospects for the upcoming Six Nations, but Tandy refused to be drawn into discussion about whether they can win the tournament. Instead he insisted the focus at present must be solely on Saturday’s opener against the Auld Enemy.

“There is belief within the team,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t think we can be thinking about winning the tournament when we have a massive challenge in England at the weekend. We are all excited and focusing on our performance.

“There are new coaches in England and they are building something. They had a really good autumn, beating Australia, South Africa and Tonga with some massive performances.

“We are not focusing on anything beyond England. We are enjoying what we are doing, enjoying the way we play the game and come Saturday we just want to put our own performance together.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves. We know how strong England are. Right across the board they’ve got a good balance to the team and some outstanding individuals. But we’ve got to focus on ourselves and how we play the game.

“We are at home, it’s going to be an unbelievable crowd so that’s exciting for the boys. It’s about not getting distracted and putting in our own performance.

“We have enjoyed some really positive performances over the past couple of seasons and we are keen to build on that.”