1
South Africa leaves door open for highly rated Josh Neill
13
{{item.n}}
The England player Finn Russell said he would target ahead of Calcutta Cup
By Josh Raisey
Scotland executed their game plan to pinpoint perfection against England in their 31-20 Calcutta Cup victory in round two of the Guinness Six Nations.
Gregor Townsend’s side wasted no time before opting to put width on the ball, which paid off handsomely in the opening 10 minutes when a break down the right flank resulted in a yellow card to England wing Henry Arundell after scrambling back. This was a theme that continued throughout the contest.
Finn Russell and Sione Tuipulotu were not afraid to sling the ball wide all afternoon at Murrayfield, and it has since transpired that the Scots planned to target England No.13 channel occupied by Tommy Freeman in the build-up to the match.
VIDEO
Former Scotland lock Jim Hamilton has since revealed a conversation he had with Russell the day before the Calcutta Cup success, where he said the team would target his British & Irish Lions team-mate Freeman.
In only his fourth Test start at outside centre, it is easy to infer that Scotland viewed Freeman as a potential weakness for England. However, the No.13 channel has been a source of success for Scotland in recent victories over England, with Huw Jones and Russell linking for Scotland’s legendary 2018 try. With England not settled on their preferred outside centre, one would imagine Scotland’s tactic would have remained the same regardless of who had 13 on their back in white.
“Chatting to Finn the day before the game – how’s it going to go down? How’s the feeling?” Hamilton said on The Rugby Pod.
“He didn’t think it was going to be a high-scoring game, he thought England were going to kick loads and they were going to physically try and impose themselves around the scrum, which they did, that was a worry for Scotland, and around lineout drive.
“Then I said, how do you approach it from a confidence point of view and how are we going to play. He said ‘we’re going to target the 13 channel, Tommy Freeman.’
“He was talking about the 13 channel and it shows where a team are when it comes to how confident they are in their skillset when, early on, they were running it. They could have gone to the Ben White box kick early on. But the fact that they had the confidence off the back of last weekend against Italy to get into that wide channel, and good was Kyle Steyn?”
This tactic of Scotland’s was only helped by Arundell’s two yellow cards, and England subsequently playing 30 minutes of the match without a winger. That would be a devilish task for even the most accomplished outside centre.
Freeman will find himself in his more familiar role on the wing this Saturday against Ireland at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, with Ollie Lawrence starting at outside centre instead.
