RBS Six Nations - Calcutta Cup Match Preview

  Scotland v England

  Murrayfield - 8/3/08 - Kick Off 1515 GMT

So why am I telling you this - well the aficionados will know that the demise of this club brought into existence the trophy we know as the Calcutta Cup. The demise was caused not by a lack of funds but a lack of fixtures. Apparently there were more interesting things to do for the expatriate community on a Saturday afternoon.  The story goes that the captain of the club, James Rothney wrote to the RFU with offer of a trophy. In 1878, AR Guillemard, President of the RFU accepted the trophy on the premise that an annual match would be played between England and Scotland.

130 years later this fixture is still being fulfilled and on Saturday the two teams will compete for the 18" high trophy made from £60 worth of sliver rupees.

Calcutta Cup

England go into this match buoyed by success in Paris whilst Scotland have had a tournament they would rather forget having suffered three straight losses.  Whatever happens as far as England are concerned it has to be a straightforward victory - if the match is either closely fought or England lose, I think the knives will be out for Brian Ashton and his team of coaches.  Patience at the moment is not a virtue that either the media or the supporters seem to have so if anything were to go wrong may I suggest those that do not want to witness a witch hunt avoid the media in any form next week.

Who will be in the team? Thanks to a certain coach and an ex-player, Ashton is having to put up with the equivalent of the Annoying ‘You don't want to do like that, you want to do it like this' Dad from Harry Enfield and Banquo's ghost.  I'd like to think Ashton is going to pick players in their correct position based on form and building for the future. So for me at hooker it would be an England Saxon pulling on the jersey - either will do (that's Paice or Hartley). Whilst at full back it would be Mike Brown.  Wigglesworth should remain at scrum half whilst Tom Croft did enough for me to retain his place in the pack and I would go with Nick Kennedy with Steve Borthwick in the second row.  The rest I would leave alone - I like the combination of Wilkinson, Flood and Noon. They know each other well and need to be allowed to build on that understanding at international level. I would demand that the Volcano go look for work - when he did againast the French it worked wonders so more of the same please!

As for the game plan, I hope England hit Scotland hard and at pace. Scotland have not been able to produce consistent quick ball and as the French showed they struggled against pace in open play. England have to keep the intensity up for 80 minutes - the lessons from the French game I hope have sunk in.

So we wish Brian Ashton, Phil Vickery and the team well and hope that the precious silver trophy is in England's possession at the end of the game.

Bring it on!

England
C. Hodgson (Sale)P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), L Mears (Bath), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), T Croft (Leicester), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins)

Replacements: G Chuter (Leicester), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), P Hodgson (London Irish), M Tait (Newcastle), I Balshaw (Gloucester).

Scotland:
H Southwell (Edinburgh); R Lamont (Sale Sharks), S Webster (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), N Walker (Ospreys); C Paterson (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh, captain); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton Saints), N Hines (Perpignan), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), A Strokosch (Gloucester), S Taylor (Stade Francais), A Hogg (Edinburgh).

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