Scotland take confidence from Calcutta Cup record as England 'means more' poser addressed

Gregor Townsend’s side travel to London this weekend chasing an unprecedented fifth Scottish win in a row in the fixture which is the oldest in international rugby.

Under Townsend’s watch Scotland have lost just one of the last seven Calcutta Cup games and are yet to lose at Twickenham under the head coach whose record at English rugby’s HQ is won two and drawn one.

It’s a far cry from previous decades when Scotland made the trip south with trepidation. They went 38 years without winning at Twickenham after 1983. The barren run ended in 2021 and Scotland followed it up with another away win two years later. They sandwiched those results with victories at Murrayfield and now find themselves on the brink of history.

“For us, I think the past gives us confidence to know that we can go and beat them, home and away,” said Ritchie, one of four Scotland players to have started all four of the wins over England between 2021 and 2024. “But the teams change so much from year to year. Obviously, England have been going through a bit of transition and over the last couple of years, they've had some different coaches and stuff like that.

“I think you can't look too much into how they're feeling about it but for us, I think you take confidence from the performance we've had against them in the past but we're under no illusions as to the challenge that they'll pose to us so we have to be at our absolute best to win the game. But we fully plan on doing that.”

England go into Saturday’s game on the back of a highly impressive victory over France. Scotland, meanwhile, lost at home to Ireland last time out and are in fourth place, a point behind Steve Borthwick’s side, in the Six Nations standings after two rounds. Ireland top the table on 10 points, followed by France and England on six and Scotland on five.

“It’s still all to play for, anything can happen in the rest of the tournament,” insisted Ritchie. “There's some pretty high-quality teams in there who could potentially beat Ireland if they go on to keep playing well.”

Scotland, who beat Italy in their opener, will face Wales at home and France away after England. The hosts are odds-on favourites to win this weekend despite their poor recent record against the Scots and Ritchie said he was not surprised.

“I think with most Six Nations games, the favourites will be the home team,” said the flanker. “They've just come off the back of a big win, we're off the back of a loss. The bookies will make their decisions based on that, I'm sure, but we're under no illusions. We know the ability that we have and we know how well we've performed against England in the past, but it's about getting it right on Saturday.”

Ritchie was asked if the Calcutta Cup meant more to Scottish players than their English counterparts and gave a considered answer before suggesting that it perhaps did.

“I can't speak on behalf of the English lads, but it certainly means a lot to us,” he said. “Whether it means more or less, I don't know. I guess it's kind of how you want to motivate yourself.

“But for us, we want to beat England just as much as we want to beat any other team in the Six Nations but, yeah, this one has a special place in our hearts. I don't know, maybe it does mean more to us, maybe that's why we've won in the last couple of years.”

Ritchie captained Scotland to their last Twickenham victory in 2023 but knows he now faces a fight for a starting place. He began the home defeat against Ireland on the bench but his outstanding record in this fixture may sway Gregor Townsend’s thinking on selection. Ritchie certainly hopes so.

“I'd obviously love to start but anything I can do to help this team win, I'll do, whether that's by starting, by being on the bench, or by helping the team prepare during the week,” said Ritchie who, along with Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe and George Turner, has started the four Calcutta Cup wins in a row.

“I love being involved and playing for Scotland. It's a great privilege of my career. Like I say, anything I can do to help this team win, whether that's on or off the field, I will try and do so.”

Meanwhile, scrum-half George Horne has joined the squad at their training camp in Spain after being passed fit to play following the facial injury he sustained in Glasgow Warriors' win over the Dragons on Sunday.

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