2025 Six Nations: England v Scotland – The Teams
Scotland travel to Twickenham on the back of a chastening loss to Ireland in round two, hoping that they can resume the recent hoodoo over England home and away and claim a fifth Calcutta Cup in a row.
Scotland record against England
Gregor Townsend has opted for a less Tombola-Tastic approach than normal, choosing to rotate somewhat back to the team that defeated Italy in the opening round.
Some spaces have been filled through injury with winger Kyle Rowe coming in for the concussed Darcy Graham and Tom Jordan continuing to fill in at 12. Rowe featured heavily last year when Darcy was injured; neither are slouches and will be less familiar to English players than, say, Arron Reed or Cam Redpath/Rory Hutchinson.
Finn Russell has passed his return-to-play protocols and is one of three Fin(n)s across both match-day squads—surpassed only by the number of Ollie’s in England’s team. I am sure Glasgow’s Ollie Smith is disappointed to miss out.
In the pack, Matt Fagerson possibly suffered from two fairly noticeable clangers in the desperate defeat to Ireland and is rotated to the bench in favour of Jamie Ritchie.
Townsend has not learned the lesson of two weekends ago at Murrayfield, and has once again opted for a 6:2 bench; mind you, so has Steve Borthwick the England head coach.
Also rotated are the looseheads with Pierre Schoemann returning to the starting shirt, meaning that Scotland will start with arguably their strongest scrummaging unit on the pitch.
With Johnny Gray and Grant Gilchrist failing to set the heather on fire last time out, Townsend has opted for two potential second-row replacements on the bench: Sam Skinner and Gregor Brown.
England: Marcus Smith, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje (capt), Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Tom Willis.
Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, George Martin Ted Hill (updated 20/2), Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Harry Randall, Elliot Daly.
Scotland: Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell (capt), Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge (capt), Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Sam Skinner, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall.
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