Six Nations - Borthwick out to silence Scots

Eurosport - Wed, 18 Mar 16:07:00 2009

England captain Steve Borthwick is determined to regain the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham on Saturday and teach Scotland how to win with grace.

Steve Borthwick - England - 0

Borthwick (pictured) is still furious at Scotland's reaction to their 15-9 victory at Murrayfield last year and he is gunning for revenge over England's oldest rugby enemy.

"That result at Murrayfield last year hurt me and it hurt every Englishman. They won fair and square and we were poor," said Borthwick.

"There are certain things I will not forget after that game. They made no disguise in rubbing in the fact they had beaten England.

"After Sunday's game against France, we won and we were pleased with our game but I would like to think we handled that win in a gracious manner.

"Not all of this squad was involved in the game last year - but I was. This is an old rivalry and I am desperate we get a win this weekend."

If England do follow up Sunday's emphatic 34-10 win against France with another Twickenham triumph, it could be enough to seal second place in the Six Nations.

Scotland have not won at Twickenham since 1983 and they head into the game with coach Frank Hadden under pressure to fulfil the minimum target of two championship victories set by his employers at the Scottish Rugby Union.

The visitors run into an England side top of the try-scoring charts and brimming with confidence after finally turning their words into action with a scintillating first 50 minutes against France.

But there was no air of overconfidence at the team's Surrey base ahead of the 116th Calcutta Cup showdown.

England learned a tough lesson at Murrayfield 12 months ago and they were disappointed with the final half hour on Sunday, when their indiscipline returned and they conceded two consolation tries to France.

Borthwick said: "It was a hugely disappointing performance last year. It was a low point for me. We are all proud to be involved with English rugby and that wasn't a good day for English rugby.

"It showed just how difficult it is to play against Scotland, how they can get wins. We need to make sure that never happens again.

"More importantly, we need to build on our performance from the weekend. For 50 minutes, it was very good before it dropped away.

"What is exciting is that we beat a very good side but we underperformed in the second half of that game. The great positive is we can say, 'Just how much better could we be?'

"Look at that half hour when we played pretty poor rugby. There was annoyance and quite a lot of frustration.

"We need to sustain our level of performance for 80 minutes. But confidence is high, spirits are good. It is up to up nice to put in the hard work so we can continue that development."

England manager Martin Johnson will name his team to play Scotland tomorrow and he is ready to recall Wasps flanker Tom Rees to replace the injured Joe Worsley.

Rees has only had two full appearances since returning from a knee injury but the England management are confident he is ready for a full-blooded Test match if Worsley's cut hand, which required six stitches at the weekend, keeps him sidelined.

Olly Barkley has been promoted above both Danny Cipriani and Shane Geraghty to be placed on standby to join the Test squad in case Toby Flood fails to recover from a shoulder injury in time to face Scotland.

Barkley was dropped from the elite squad in January and his elevation confirms Cipriani and Geraghty have slipped further down England's pecking order.

Northampton's Ben Foden and Wasps prop Tim Payne have also joined the England squad for training this week.

Forward coach John Wells said: "Tom is a quality international player.

"We are confident of his current fitness and, while he has only had two full games, I don't think we would have pressed him into action if we didn't have confidence in his ability to perform at this level."

SportingLife / Eurosport

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  1. Scotland may not have won at Twickers since 77, but­ that could all change on Saturday, England have been­ known but mess up, I sincerely hope they don't, I­ hope to see that they have turned a corner after­ Sunday, but it's anyone's game on the day, we­ need to come out all guns blazing, and keep it like­ that for 80mins....good luck to England i'll be­ there cheering them on....no yellow cards I hope.

    From chilledout47, on Thu 19 Mar 11:17PM
  2. England to win on Saturday by 1 point...that's all.­ The sweaty's will bring it on and our boys will­ struggle...1 point, that's all! Wales to beat­ Ireland by 17 points and add grace to their RWC 7's­ win...watch this space!

    From robertmaggs, on Thu 19 Mar 10:50AM
  3. England up to last weekend were a poor team who were­ inches away from being a great team. Seems they finally­ sorted their heads out. but lets not forget who they­ hammered last weekend. that was the worst french­ performance ive ever seen. amazingly @#$%. However,­ here go england again with one decent win under their­ belt and the egos taking off again. I think scotland­ will be a different proposition, and might well knock­ some sense into them. chance would be a fine thing.­ good luck scotland. Ireland for the slam.

    From Ads A, on Thu 19 Mar 3:11AM
  4. Even if scotland were to win, it would be a minor­ glitch for us my friend. You rarely beat us at­ anything, except curling maybe.

    From laboca123, on Thu 19 Mar 1:30AM
  5. some people have short memorys thats why i love it when­ england think they will thrash scotland lets wait and­ see .scotland to win by 7 points

    From M D, on Thu 19 Mar 1:11AM
  6. Yeah deep fried chocolate bars followed by shortbread­ probably didnt wet their appetites

    From laboca123, on Thu 19 Mar 12:59AM
  7. 20. sbthomas I wouldn't turn up either I've­ seen Scottish cooking.

    From blues fan, on Thu 19 Mar 12:12AM
  8. I think Scotland have been playing good rugby with­ great support Play. They had the ball for long parts of­ the game against Wales just mistakes let them down.­ Sound familiar? if England have a bad one then­ it'll be a scare for them. They behave with the­ confidence they sued against France then it could be a­ similar score line

    From blues fan, on Thu 19 Mar 12:07AM
  9. Its true that other nations accuse us of living in the­ past, when they are just as bad and in some cases­ worse.

    From laboca123, on Wed 18 Mar 9:14PM
  10. Some people should stop living in the past and look to­ the future, thats what us England fans are told when we­ talk about winning the world cup in 2003, and there you­ are talking about something that happened 9 YEARS­ AGO...give it a rest and move on!!!!
    50 POINTS....I­ DONT THINK SO..WOULD BE NICE, BUT IT WONT HAPPEN.

    From chilledout47, on Wed 18 Mar 8:43PM
  11. This from the same team that failed to show up to­ collect the inaugural six nations trophy in 2000 after­ Scotland (or at least Duncan Hodge) beat them and so­ denied them a grand slam. In an even greater show of­ petulance and insult to their hosts certain English­ players then failed to show up for the after-match­ dinner that evening.

    From sbthomas_2000, on Wed 18 Mar 7:57PM
  12. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    its a sign of the times that England would even­ contemplate struggling against Scotland, If england­ cant put 50 points on the board this weekend, then MJ­ should do the decent thing and make way for a worthy­ successor.

    From gary, on Wed 18 Mar 7:52PM
  13. Invalid comment??????????? Yahoo you are a bunch of­ invalids

    From laboca123, on Wed 18 Mar 7:25PM
  14. Win and grace, 2 words missing from scotlands vocab.

    From laboca123, on Wed 18 Mar 7:21PM
  15. Run Jocko Run !!!!!!!!

    From greenstandard, on Wed 18 Mar 7:11PM
  16. If both teams start like they did last week this could­ be a very entertaining game to watch fingers crossed

    From Salamander, on Wed 18 Mar 5:04PM
  17. OOOPS that should read beat. Damn nails

    From sadie s, on Wed 18 Mar 4:08PM
  18. Tangoman. I think with the Italy game, that makes 2?­ unless my math is really bad. And we lost to Ireland by­ 1 point. Is this just sour grapes cause France bear­ you?

    From sadie s, on Wed 18 Mar 4:05PM
  19. A word of caution here. Yes, England blew France away­ and no one can take that away from them. Scotland have­ been poor in recent years, without Patterson they have­ little to offer. On the other hand England have not­ been great guns this year and we ALL know that if there­ is one game the Scots do not want to lose... it's­ this one! :) It should make for a great game. England­ fans (including myself) beware of­ "hubris"....

    From Tarquinius S, on Wed 18 Mar 4:00PM
  20. England teaching how to win with grace? That's a­ laugh!!!!!!

    From John L, on Wed 18 Mar 3:08PM
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