'The Grand Slam game is round two now'

This year’s Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield in round two of the Guinness Six Nations has been labelled the “Grand Slam game” by Andy Goode.

Scotland and England meet in Edinburgh on February 14 after opening round fixtures against Italy in Rome for the Scots and Wales at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium for Steve Borthwick’s side, and Goode feels this could be Scotland’s year should they get the job done against their nemesis. Conversely, England will be in a prime position for the Slam should they overcome their “big test”.

While many originally predicted the round five meeting between France and England at the Stade de France to be the Grand Slam decider, with both sides expected to arrive in Paris unbeaten, a combination of France’s squad selection, Scotland’s starting XV and England’s poor record in recent years against Gregor Townsend’s side have led Goode to make this prediction on The Rugby Pod recently.

This came after fellow host Dan Biggar asserted that “England will fancy that [France] are not as unbeatable in Paris as with those players in,” following Fabien Galthie’s decision to omit record try-scorer Damian Penaud and former captains Gregory Alldritt and Gael Fickou from his squad. This statement was made before Uini Atonio’s sudden retirement, which only reinforces Biggar’s point.

Neither Biggar nor Jim Hamilton agreed with Goode, suggesting Scotland’s bench and second-half performances in recent matches are the factors that will cost them in the Championship.

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But with both England and France at home this year, this could be Scotland’s best chance of securing their first-ever Six Nations title.

“The Grand Slam game is round two now,” Goode said. “Round two is Grand Slam territory, which is Scotland against England up in Murrayfield.”

“Scotland are 100 per cent, looking at the fixtures and how they pan out, this could be [Scotland’s] year.

“You look at [England’s] games, we play Wales at home, that’s a given first-up, that’ll be 50 points, but the hard game, you can’t get away from it, going up to Scotland. I think last year was the first year we won the Calcutta Cup in five or six years, so the reality of it is, Scotland always are our bogey team. We can dust up Ireland in round three at Twickenham with the state of what Ireland are producing at the minute – you’d expect England to be favourites there.

“But our big game is Scotland in round two, and that sets us up as to whether we’re going for a Grand Slam, or we’re not. I know that’s a fairly obvious statement but, I’m telling you now, England have the ability to win a Grand Slam, but build into the competition and, ultimately, our big test is round two against Scotland. That’s a game that’s always been difficult.”