Scotland v England: teams, stats and preview
England travel to Scotland for their second match of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations. Here are the teams, stats and preview.
England welcome back Mako Vunipola to the front row, while Ben Earl and Tom Dunn could make their debuts off the bench as finishers.
Willi Heinz replaces Ben Youngs at nine, with flanker Lewis Ludlam in for Courtney Lawes. Lock George Kruis also returns, with Jonathan Joseph replacing injured centre Manu Tuilagi.
Back row Magnus Bradbury replaces Nick Haining in the only change to the Scotland line-up after his debut last week in Scotland's defeat by Ireland. Cornell du Preez is not in the matchday 23 for Scotland.
- When? Saturday, 8 February
- Kick-off? 16:45 GMT
- Where? Murrayfield, Edinburgh
- Coverage? Live on BBC One, match centre on EnglandRugby.com
Views from the camp
England head coach Eddie Jones: “Scotland are a dangerous side. They like to play with a lot of width and with a lot of flow and tempo in their game. We want to make sure we dominate the gain line.
“Their win record against England at Murrayfield is substantially higher than their overall record against us, so we have to recognise they are a dangerous beast and we have to be at our best to beat them.”
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend: "We were proud of parts of our performance in Dublin at a very difficult venue.
"The challenge for the squad is to replicate that level and take our chances when they come, in order to win tight games. England are an excellent team whose run to the Rugby World Cup final was no fluke."
Previous encounters
2009: Twickenham, England 26 – 12 Scotland 2009 Six Nations Championship
2010: Murrayfield, Scotland 15 – 15 England 2010 Six Nations Championship
2011: Twickenham, England 22 – 16 Scotland 2011 Six Nations Championship
2011: Eden Park, England 16 – 12 Scotland 2011 Rugby World Cup Pool Stage
2012: Murrayfield, Scotland 6 – 13 England 2012 Six Nations Championship
2013: Twickenham, England 38 – 18 Scotland 2013 Six Nations Championship
2014: Murrayfield, Scotland 0 – 20 England 2014 Six Nations Championship
2015: Twickenham, England 25 – 13 Scotland 2015 Six Nations Championship
2016: Murrayfield, Scotland 9 – 15 England 2016 Six Nations Championship
2017: Twickenham, England 61 – 21 Scotland 2017 Six Nations Championship
2018: Murrayfield, Scotland 25 – 13 England 2018 Six Nations Championship
2019: Twickenham, England 38 – 38 Scorland 2019 Six Nations Championship
Key stats
Scotland are unbeaten in their last two Six Nations matches against England (W1, D1), this after losing seven in a row before that; not since 1982-1984 have Scotland gone unbeaten in three straight Calcutta Cup fixtures (W2, D1).
England lost their opening game of this year’s Six Nations, against France, only once before in the Championship (since 2000) have they lost their opening two fixtures in a campaign (2005).
Scotland and England drew 38-38 when they met in last year’s Six Nations, it was the highest scoring draw in Test history and saw Scotland tie the game despite trailing by 24 points at halftime, the biggest deficit any team has pulled back in a Five/Six Nations game.
England have lost five of their last seven away games in the Six Nations (W2), including their last two in a row; however, not since 2009 have they lost three on the bounce away from home.
England conceded just five penalties in their opening game of this year’s Six Nations, fewer than any other side and nine fewer than Scotland who conceded the most (14).
Scotland missed just 20 tackles against Ireland last weekend, fewer than any other side in this year’s Six Nations and they boast the best tackle success rate as a result (90%), in contrast England have the lowest tackle success rate (81%).
England won 17 of their 18 lineouts in the opening round of this year’s Six Nations, their 94% success rate at that set piece was the best of any side, while Scotland’s 78% success rate was the worst; both sides recorded a perfect rate at the scrum in Round 1.
Player landmarks
Jonny May (29) is now fifth on the all-time England men's try scorers list surpassing Jason Robinson (28) after his two tries against France. Jeremy Guscott (30), Ben Cohen and Will Greenwood (31) and Rory Underwood (49) are ahead of him.
Maro Itoje hit the most rucks of any player in the opening round of this year’s Six Nations (44) while Jonny Gray (Scotland) was the joint top tackler (22, level with Bernard Le Roux).
Owen Farrell is 20 points away from reaching 900 for England in Test rugby, a tally only Jonny Wilkinson (1,179) has reached; Farrell’s highest haul in an international match came against Scotland in 2017 when he kicked 26 points (7 conversions, 4 penalties).
Teams
Scotland XV: Hogg (capt); Maitland, Jones, Johnson, Kinghorn; Hastings, Price; Sutherland, Brown, Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, Ritchie, Watson, Bradbury.
Replacements: McInally, Dell, Berghan, Toolis, Haining, Horne, Hutchinson, Harris.
England
15 George Furbank, 14 Jonny May, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Willi Heinz; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Kruis, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Tom Curry.
Finishers: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Courtney Lawes, 21 Ben Earl, 22 Ben Youngs, 23 Ollie Devoto.
Don’t miss out on your opportunity to go behind-the-scenes and watch the England squad train at Twickenham Stadium on Friday 14 February at 3pm. Tickets for the event are free and available on a first-come first-served basis. You are entitled to book up to four tickets each, with a £1 booking fee included for each. Click here for more information.
