Scotland 24th man in bonkers Calcutta Cup clash now set to take centre stage in Six Nations renewal

The centre was Scotland’s 24th man in what was surely the most bonkers ever encounter with England back in 2019.

McDowall watched transfixed as his team turned a 0-31 first-half deficit into a 38-31 lead with five minutes remaining, only for George Ford to rescue a draw for England with a last-gasp try and conversion.

While subsequent Calcutta Cup clashes may not have matched the impossible drama of that afternoon, the 38-38 game of six years ago proved to be the catalyst for a change in Scotland’s Twickenham fortunes and they haven’t lost there since.

It’s a run that comprises just the three games but given that Scotland had lost 14 in a row at England’s HQ going into the 2019 match, it is a sequence of some significance.

Rugby’s oldest international fixture returns on Saturday and McDowall will travel south with aspirations to be in the starting XV as Gregor Townsend’s side look to bounce back from their chastening loss to Ireland at Murrayfield.

Six years ago, McDowall found himself called into Scotland’s Six Nations squad after just eight senior appearances for Glasgow Warriors. The then 20-year-old was a centre full of promise but had no real expectations of making the match-day 23.

“I think I'd played a few games for Glasgow, and there were a couple of injuries and I got called into the Scotland squad,” he said. “It was the last game, so I was taken as 24th man, so I don't think I was anywhere near playing.

“It was a great experience to go down, and obviously at half-time I was thinking, ‘oh no, this isn't going too well!’ The boys battled back well in the second half, and probably should have won it. It just shows you what a special game is.”

England had scored four first-half tries through Jack Nowell, Tom Curry, Joe Launchbury and Jonny May and were 31-0 up after 29 minutes, Owen Farrell adding four conversions and a penalty. Stuart McInally gave Scotland a glimmer of hope with a try before half-time and, after robust words had been exchanged in the away dressing room, the visitors came out firing, with further tries from Darcy Graham (two), Magnus Bradbury and Finn Russell to level it up at 31-31.

Sam Johnson then took delivery of a sublime Russell pass to put Scotland ahead in the 76th minute, only for Ford to strike at the death.

“That was my first ever involvement in the Six Nations, being 24th man down there, so I've seen the two sides of it, going 31-0 down and then coming back to 38-31,” added McDowall.

“Obviously there have been some big games through the years, but that one definitely stands out, so hopefully we don't go 31-0 down this time!”

McDowall came off the bench in the 21st minute of the 32-18 defeat by Ireland last weekend, joining the fray with Jamie Dobie after Finn Russell and Darcy Graham had collided with each other and sustained game-ending head injuries.

It was a difficult introduction for the pair as Scotland had to rejig their backline at a time when Ireland were dominating. McDowall acquitted himself well at 12, in between Tom Jordan and Huw Jones, and the centre said it helped to have club-mates either side of him. He also felt he performed better in the Ireland game than he had the previous week against Italy, a match he started.

“I was probably a bit disappointed after last week,” McDowall admitted. “I probably didn't feel I had my best game [against Italy].

“I just tried to play my own game [against Ireland] and right a few wrongs from the week before. Towards the end of that first half, we got a lot of the ball, got to move it around quite a lot. It was obviously tough for me and Dobie to get chucked in together like that, especially with a 6-2 bench split, but I think we both handled it pretty well.

“Me, TJ and Shuggy just had a chat. We were like, ‘look, we've just got to throw the ball. We've got to throw caution to the wind now and have a shot’. I think we did that really well to get back to 17-11. Then obviously the game got away from us a bit.”

McDowall believes the England match is the perfect one for Scotland to “get back on the horse” but admitted the Irish loss was a painful one.

“It definitely does dent you a little bit,” he said. “You're playing against a team that's probably the best in the world at the moment or, if not, then very close to being.

“Obviously, to lose at home is really gutting, and it will hurt the boys. I hope everyone knows that it's not easy for us, getting rolled over at home. It definitely hurt and we'll have to go and have a look at what we can do better.”

England, meanwhile, enjoyed a highly impressive 26-25 win over France last weekend and will go into the Calcutta Cup confident of ending Scotland’s recent dominance. Townsend’s side have beaten their ancient rivals four times in a row but McDowall knows Steve Borthwick’s squad will be high on confidence.

“They had a massive win on Saturday, so they're going to be feeling really good, on top of the world,” he said.

“I've never played in a Calcutta Cup match before, so if I got the chance to play… The boys always talk about it as the biggest game of the tournament for us, especially going down to Twickenham.

“It's a special game, and everyone knows what it means to both countries. I think we're both close on points now in the tournament, so it's a big game for both teams, in terms of where they finish in the leaderboard.”