February 3rd, 2012

An away fixture is not the ideal start to a tournament, but interim coach Stuart Lancaster will be desperate for a victory to get his ‘new’ England off to the best possible start.

Since the Rugby World Cup debacle, Lancaster has quickly rebuilt the team’s reputation off the field, reiterating the need for discipline and commitment to the cause – but all this may count for nothing if results on the field do not go England’s way.

England has not won in Edinburgh since 2004, and although history is unlikely to count for much in terms of the result, there’s no escaping the heritage of the oldest rugby fixture in the world.

England and Scotland first played each other at Rugby Union in 1871 at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, with Scotland the victors by a score of 1-0 – needless to say the scoring system was slightly different back then. The teams now compete each year for the Calcutta Cup, so called after a group of expats in India formed a rugby club, created a trophy from melted-down Indian rupees, and then donated it to the RFU in 1878 on the basis that it should be competed for annually.

To this day, there have been 129 matches between the two sides, of which England has won 69 and Scotland 42, with 18 draws – the overall record is firmly in England’s favour, but the Scots have had the upper hand in the contests at Murrayfield in the last few years. The most recent fixture took place in Auckland in the Rugby World Cup in October, when England’s last-gasp victory ended the Scots’ campaign.

There has been talk of vengeance for that defeat to motivate Scotland, but the reality of over 130 years of fierce rugby battles against the Auld enemy will provide sufficient motivation, and the task facing a young England side will not be easy.

October 10th, 2011

England’s World Cup campaign came to a disappointing end at the weekend with an abject performance against a resurgent France.

Hopes were cautiously high going into the game for the fans, with France’s loss to Tonga the week before evidence that England should have the confidence to win the game and progress to the semi-finals. Alas, it was not to be, as France dominated the early stages, racing to a two-try lead within the first half hour. From that point, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the men in white.

October 4th, 2011

The good news this week is that England have secured qualification to the quarter finals. The not-so-good news? They struggled to beat a Scotland team who are comparatively weak at present and pose little attacking threat.

September 26th, 2011

England has now completed three quarters of the pool matches and only Scotland stand in their way of qualification for the knockout stages – but if the Scots beat England with a bonus point and Argentina win as expected, England could be heading home early.

This week saw the men in white (and sometimes black) complete an expected trouncing of a weakened Romania side. All the squad members have now had a run out and it was gratifying to see the wingers grabbing some tries, with Mark Cueto quadrupling his tally for the past year in 20 first half minutes.

September 19th, 2011

A win’s a win, but if England are going to churn out performances like this one, they stand little chance of progressing in the World Cup beyond the quarter finals. Luckily, a stuttering performance against Georgia does not represent a failed campaign, and there will surely be strong words in the England camp this week with fingers pointed at individuals who need to take responsibility for a lacklustre display.

September 13th, 2011

When a big tournament like this comes around, all that matters is the result.The history books will only record who won and lost, with nothing about the manner in which the game was played.

England fans should take some comfort from this, after a frustrating night in Dunedin that saw them scrape past Argentina in a tense, unspectacular affair.