Calcutta Cup

[Cameo]

Id be tempted by Harley. Impact is nice but I mainly want the best player if we lose someone after half an hour. I think CDP is great but not seen much from him at all recently

[whatisthejava]

Harley has to be the next man, everyone else is just back from injury or injured.

[Matt Ha]

So if Maitland is up and running again do you swap him for Visser? I wouldn't but although Tim had a fine game against the Welsh so might argue Maitland is the more reliable.
Sean could make a good bench option, perhaps, along with Horn. Between the two of them they cover most of the back line.

[Mikey Brown]

There doesn't seem to be much involvement for Bennet and Horne can cover centre so I would go for it.

Visser is a weird one because at half time I bought his career was finished.

[hugh_woatmeigh]

Bennett is a game changer and Maitland isn't. So no.

Let Visser and Maitland battle it out in training.

[Mikey Brown]

I guess Jones is supposed to be able to play all the back 3 positions too?

[hugh_woatmeigh]

Based on the training videos & pictures it looks like it'll be CDP or Harley. Denton is certainly nowhere to be seen (to be expected, tbh).

Worryingly Berghan continues to play an active part.

[hugh_woatmeigh]

Also worth noting Horne doesn't appear to be involved.

[Jps]

Based on the training videos & pictures it looks like it'll be CDP or Harley. Denton is certainly nowhere to be seen (to be expected, tbh).

Worryingly Berghan continues to play an active part.

He was somewhere Sunny enjoying a beer this afternoon with some palm trees and a port if his social media is to be believed. Good for him I guess

[switchskier]

Scott Cummings? He did pretty well packing down at 8 last weekend.

In all seriousness I wouldn't be upset to see Swinson and Brown covering back-row between them (Ford on bench) and using the spot for a real impact player. England are going to field a big pack and whilst we can't try to go toe to toe with them having some extra ballast to bring on would be great.

Saying that it looks like Vunipola might be back so tempted by Harley with specific instructions to stop him at source, think he's our most destructive tackler

[whatisthejava]

Saying that it looks like Vunipola might be back so tempted by Harley with specific instructions to stop him at source, think he's our most destructive tackler

Id argue that Hardie is our most destructive tackler but he prefers to use his face to much

If Billy V plays and in form I think England will be a different beast, without him England don't suck in the players they want to and they struggle to make space, if he plays we need to be careful to get 2 men on him to deck quick and then get up and back in the defensive line asap

[Big D]

I think I would stick with same back row that finished the last game and have CdP on the bench.

He has looked off the pace a wee bit (albeit in turgid conditions the last two weeks) but he is the option left standing that could do something to win a tight game with an offload or a good carry.

[General Zod]

I thought Haarley was carted off during that last Glasgow game, or am I imagining things?

[Mikey Brown]

So. Tactics?

Certainly have to get in Young's face and get him shovelling shit ball. If they sit back and let waves of England carriers run at the fringes it will start to tell, but if Youngs is forced to pass more than 3 feet he can really struggle. I think the best use of Wilson may be just tracking Vunipola and taking his legs out.

The aim can't be to grind it out though, obviously. Dunbar running down the Ford/Farrell channel could very well lead to Farrell flying out of position and somebody needs to take advantage of that. Seymour having a good day picking lines off the wing through midfield (as he's so good at) could be crucial.

How is everyone viewing the set-piece contest? What to expect at the breakdown?

[whatisthejava]

We will hold our own in the lineout and maybe snaffle a bit of theres if we can fustrate them

Scrums we are in trouble, Zander keeps putting his legs to far back he hinges a bit (or thats what the refs keep telling him)
We are also not scrumaging straight, the props and second rows seem to be at a slightly different angle so it looks like they are not getting all the strength through
Back rows dont do alot on a good da but they should be trying to keep the props straight, think our back rows are proabbly more interested in getting off the scrum and disrupting which is adding to the problems
Im also not convinced the 2nd rows are locking out properlly as any sideways movememnt screw Zander and that means the second rows jiggle about and then we go back at a rate of knots.

Alot of the issues with young props is they develop their strength through squats so they are very powerful up and down but what the french did was they moved the props and then made them push at an angle and the props were not strong enough to deal with it.

Even then there is definetly a poblem with the second row as even if your props are in trouble if you lock out the props will go up and down but cant actually go back as the locks are stopping them

England are not great at scoring tries so we have to deal with the pressure keep the penalty count low, try and not give them a scrum near our line and when we do get the ball take every opertunity we get like we did to the welsh

I actually think our attack will do well against England as its clear England is very good if you run straight at them as France and Wales did but im wondering if the wide defence channels have been tested in the previous three games

[whatisthejava]

Id be tempted to play the first half like we did against Wales and try and stay up, it didnt result in alot of tries and the welsh backrow dealt with us but when we changed tactics the welsh didnt really know what to do, if anything from the England v italy game is England are not very good if you changethe script on them, id even be tempted to be a bit of a dick early on and not contest some rucks just to see how England react to changing tactics.

I think for Scotland to win we need to play smart and keep the english guessing whats coming next, if we do that and we get the rub of the green i think we have a chance

[Mikey Brown]

I'd be curious to see that tactic. It would be interesting to see if Jones has spent any of his valuable time practising how to negate the "non-rugby" ruck tactic. Looked a bit of a twat in the interview after the game.

[hugh_woatmeigh]

Tactic = give the ball to Hogg.

[Big D]

We will hold our own in the lineout and maybe snaffle a bit of theres if we can fustrate them

Scrums we are in trouble, Zander keeps putting his legs to far back he hinges a bit (or thats what the refs keep telling him)
We are also not scrumaging straight, the props and second rows seem to be at a slightly different angle so it looks like they are not getting all the strength through
Back rows dont do alot on a good da but they should be trying to keep the props straight, think our back rows are proabbly more interested in getting off the scrum and disrupting which is adding to the problems
Im also not convinced the 2nd rows are locking out properlly as any sideways movememnt screw Zander and that means the second rows jiggle about and then we go back at a rate of knots.

Alot of the issues with young props is they develop their strength through squats so they are very powerful up and down but what the french did was they moved the props and then made them push at an angle and the props were not strong enough to deal with it.

Even then there is definetly a poblem with the second row as even if your props are in trouble if you lock out the props will go up and down but cant actually go back as the locks are stopping them

I thought the scrums in the Wales games were mostly good until tiredness kicked in. That will be an issue on Saturday too.

It is basically the Glasgow tight 5 and 9, so it should in theory be a well oiled machine in terms of positioning etc. I think a lot is down to the props learning at that level as they go and not being strong enough yet to fully prevent any shenanigans. The Irish scrum was stronger but they were shown on the overhead to be on an angle a lot, the Welsh LHP was hinging all day against ZGRF, who has his own issues with feet positioning.

Before the second rows can lock out they need either the scrum to win the initial battle when the ball comes in to then lock out or they need to move their feet to get their legs straight. Moving their feet when the props are under pressure is a recipe for disaster. Like you ay at times Zander has his feet to far back which is something he needs to sort. If the props aren't strong enough to stay somewhat straight it's difficult for the second rows to maintain any sort of position too and there is only so much the back row can do.

Best case for the weekend is keep tight and have quick scrums on our ball and on theirs stand our ground. That being said, I don't think Coles is as good in the scrums what he has been in the past.

[Big D]

We were deadly accurate against Wales. Very few handling errors. We need to play with the same precision and care of the ball.

They will target Watson, he is a known threat but that may let Barclay go under the radar at the rucks. They and Wilson need a big game.

[Renniks]

I'm unsure if the repetition of this by Java is just trying to wind English fans up but
“England are not great at scoring tries”

Surely, by that logic, Scotland aren't either…

England scored the same number of tries against Wales as Scotland
(and Wales didn't capitulate for half the game against England, just for 10 seconds and we took our chance)

They scored 1 Less than you scored against France (but, crucially, did win the game)

And scored 6 tries against an Italy when we played terribly - almost certainly the worst showing under Eddie Jones, but still scored more tries than kicks.

England have many issues currently, I wouldn't bank on us not scoring tries against you though

[Big D]

England have many issues currently, I wouldn't bank on us not scoring tries against you though

I would suggest England most definitely will score tries against us. But everybody does even the diddy sides.

[Renniks]

England have many issues currently, I wouldn't bank on us not scoring tries against you though

I would suggest England most definitely will score tries against us. But everybody does even the diddy sides.

Indeed, my concern is that England won't score as many tries as you, and if Farrell kicks like he did against Italy, I can't see us winning at all.

[Adder]

England have many issues currently, I wouldn't bank on us not scoring tries against you though

I would suggest England most definitely will score tries against us. But everybody does even the diddy sides.

Indeed, my concern is that England won't score as many tries as you, and if Farrell kicks like he did against Italy, I can't see us winning at all.

It's another game where we (Scotland) expect to compete but we all know it could go very wrong.

[ARM]

I thought Haarley was carted off during that last Glasgow game, or am I imagining things?

The Ginger Ninja laughs at you...that lad is unbreakable.

Vernon innit?