‘When's a good time to tell the players to stop drinking?’ Inside the Scotland changing room after England win

In previous years there would have been a fortnight’s break before round three of the championship. Now it’s straight into the next game and Scotland flew to Spain on Sunday for a warm-weather training camp ahead of the match with Wales in Cardiff this Saturday.

Gregor Townsend, skipper Sione Tuipulotu and the squad deserved their refreshments after the sort of performance that reminds you just how good this team can be, a complete contrast to the previous week’s loss to Italy in the rain of Rome. It was Scotland’s fifth win over England in six years and the truth is that the 31-20 scoreline flattered the visitors. The gulf between the sides was stark.

England came to Murrayfield on the back of a 12-game winning streak but were blown away by a Scottish performance shot through with skill, vigour and courage. Finn Russell, at 33, turned in the sort of display that suggests he is ageless. This, incredibly, was his sixth Calcutta Cup win. The pack gave him the platform to work from and the stand-off was ably assisted by his halfback partner Ben White and the rest of the backline, most notably Kyle Steyn who had what most surely be his best game in a Scotland jersey.

Townsend has got this fixture off to a fine art - he has lost only two of nine Calcutta Cup games as head coach - but he knows he needs to beat Wales to prove Scotland don’t just turn it on when England are the opposition.

There's a championship to go for now

“There’s another game next week obviously and we’re on a seven-day turnaround,” he said. “That is going to focus the minds.

“We'll enjoy having the trophy but we've got to realise that this is week four now of a campaign. I said to Sione, ‘when's a good time to tell the players to stop drinking?’ But we've enjoyed the changing room. It brings back so many good memories having the trophy in there but we now know we've got a job to do.

“Someone mentioned we're top of the table but there's a championship to go for now. We weren't feeling that way last Saturday night or last Sunday morning. The only way we can go after this championship is if we win next week and then we have a week off. So that's a goal for us now.”

Scotland blew England away in the opening 15 minutes. Russell’s stunning one-handed tip pass played in Huw Jones for the opener and then Sione Tuipulotu found Jamie Ritichie for try No 2 after a smart switch of play by White.

England responded with a try from Henry Arundell (in between his two yellow cards) but Scotland scored again before half-time through White after a dreadful fumble by Ellis Genge. Jones got his second after the break after Matt Fagerson charged down George Ford’s attempted drop goal and a late try by Ben Earl was mere consolation for the visitors.

Of course, the question that inevitably follows a performance like this is why can Scotland can do it against England but not sides such as Ireland, France and, dare we say, Italy?

Townsend describes the Calcutta Cup as Scotland’s biggest game of the season. He knows what it means to the Scottish people and suffered plenty in the fixture as a player. Courtney Lawes, the former England flanker, claimed last week that Scotland's “obsession” with England holds them back. “They always raise their game to play us,” he complained. Andy Goode, the ex-fly-half turned pundit, issued his own back-handed compliment: “Fair play to Scotland, they’ve won their Cup Final again.”

Townsend is unapologetic about holding the game in the highest esteem.

Nothing hits harder than losing to England

“I did find it funny that people are looking at it as a negative,” he said. “You guys are here, you know what this fixture means. I played this team 10 times [as a player] and only won one game. I watched the team lose game after game and nothing hits harder than losing to England. And the one game that we won back in 2000, we lost all our other games in the Six Nations that year and it lifted everybody. It was the best result.

“So to play our best rugby against England is a massive positive. If I was to choose one team to play your best rugby against it would be England every single time. And we saw the atmosphere before the game, during the game and after the game and what it means to our supporters.

“We have something tangible that we can have in our changing room, and obviously we have to play well in every game, but to be able to deliver that performance and the performances we've delivered, even last year [when England won 16-15 at Twickenham]. I thought last year was outstanding. There won’t be many times where we've gone to Twickenham and outscored England three tries to one. So, it's great that our players can have that belief and accuracy and effort in this fixture because they're a top team, they're third in the world.”

Everyone wanted a piece of Saturday and politicians were quick to seize the photo opportunities. First minister John Swinney posted a picture of himself in the changing room, drinking from the Calcutta Cup. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was in there too, cheesing alongside Townsend. Russell Findlay, the Tories’ head honcho, was on the outside looking in and had to content himself with a pic clutching four cans of Tennent's in the (not so) cheap seats.

There was celebrity backing too, with Lawrence Shankland in the West Stand. The Hearts striker’s goals have helped his team lead the Premiership for almost five months and Scotland were also top of the table by Saturday night.

Kenny Logan was jumping around in delight and others tweeted their support, including Liz McColgan and even social media personality Big John the Boshfather: “Well done Scotland, you deserved the win. Bosh.” You can't say fairer than that.

Teams & scorers in famous Calcutta Cup victory

Scorers: Scotland: Tries: Jones 2, Ritchie, White. Cons: Russell 4. Pens: Russell. England: Tries: Arundell, Earl. Cons: Ford 2. Pens: Ford 2.

Yellow card: Arundell (Eng, 8min). 20-min red card: Arundell (Eng, 37min).

Scotland: T Jordan (D Graham 68); K Steyn, H Jones, S Tuipulotu, J Dobie (A Hastings 75); F Russell, B White (G Horne 58); N McBeth (P Schoeman 49), G Turner (D Cherry 50), Z Fagerson (E Millar Mills 50), G Brown, S Cummings, J Ritchie (M Fagerson h-t), R Darge, J Dempsey (M Williamson 57).

England: F Steward; T Roebuck, T Freeman, F Dingwall, 11 H Arundell (F Smith 57); 10 G Ford, A Mitchell (B Spencer 68); E Genge (B Rodd 57), L Cowan-Dickie (J George 57), J Heyes (T Davison 68), M Itoje (A Coles 57), O Chessum, G Pepper (H Pollock 57), S Underhill (T Curry h-t), B Earl.

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).

Attendance: 67,300.

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