If England play as they have trained for their Calcutta Cup game against Scotland it is going to be a very feisty weekend. So intense was their contact session on Wednesday that Stuart Lancaster, their head coach, even felt compelled to step in and call a premature halt before the practice pitch in Bagshot began to resemble a Top Gear production meeting.
A bit of competitive niggle in the week of a Six Nations international, however, is never a bad thing and Lancaster will be quietly delighted the frustration of England’s defeat to Ireland is still bubbling 10 days later. “We played 15 versus 15 and I had to calm it down,” revealed Lancaster, having confirmed the returns of Courtney Lawes and Mike Brown to his starting line-up. “You had all the intensity that goes with putting the starting team against 15 players who had wanted to be in the starting XV. I was blowing the whistle at the end to make sure we didn’t play the game too early.”
By all accounts any Dublin cobwebs were totally swept away, with the shadow back row of Tom Wood, Nick Easter and Gloucester’s Matt Kvesic offering fierce competition at the breakdown. With an intriguing second-string midfield of Danny Cipriani, Henry Slade and Sam Burgess – who has been training with the senior squad this week – also involved, the scrap for places is clearly intensifying as England enter the final furlongs of this season’s championship.
With players such as Manu Tuilagi, Joe Launchbury and Ben Morgan also still to return, Lancaster firmly believes that, come September, he will have a World Cup squad strong enough to compete with anyone. He is also keenly aware, though, that the next two weekends are important in terms of re-establishing momentum, which is why he wanted to encourage a genuine edge in training.
“We wanted to put the starting team under pressure so that they get used to making decisions under pressure. The more you can replicate that in training then hopefully it comes easy when the game comes around.”
With 35 to 40 players pushing to be involved this autumn, this is set to be the shape of things to come. Lancaster certainly has no plans to bring in club sides as tackle fodder this summer, reasoning he has sufficient bodies desperate to be involved to keep everyone honest. “You can very easily generate intensity, as we did today, without bringing outside opposition in. If anything it’s better as it is, because you can compare like with like.”
He is also banking on Lawes and Brown to make a difference against the Scots, with the return of the experienced Geoff Parling and Wood on the bench also set to motivate the incumbents. Lawes will run the lineout and, while the ousted George Kruis offered plenty of strength and mobility, Lancaster believes the England pack will be stronger for the Northampton man’s presence. “The more responsibility you give Courtney the better he becomes. He’s got a presence in the lineout now as a leader which he didn’t previously have.
“It also means Dave Attwood doesn’t have to think about the lineout – he can concentrate on the fundamentals of his game; the breakdown, tackling, carrying hard and smashing people.”
The need for England to start well for a change will also be re-emphasised, particularly as Scotland have the ability to pose problems after three relatively narrow defeats so far. The visiting fly-half Finn Russell reckons his team will be right up for the contest, despite not having won at Twickenham since 1983. “If we get a good start and get into it, then England might be taken aback a wee bit,” said Russell, set to regain his starting spot after a two-week ban for his ill-fated collision with an aerial Dan Biggar at Murrayfield.
“I’d imagine it would get a bit heated at points in the game … there is still a Calcutta Cup to play for. I know, for me, it is still a big game. We’ve lost three games by a total of 13 points … we know we have got a good group of players and we can win these games.”
England Brown (Harlequins); Watson (Bath), Joseph (Bath), Burrell (Northampton), Nowell (Exeter); Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); Marler (Harlequins), Hartley (Northampton), Cole (Leicester), Attwood (Bath), Lawes (Northampton), Haskell (Wasps), Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).
Replacements T Youngs (Leicester), M Vunipola (Saracens), Brookes (Newcastle), Parling (Leicester), Wood (Northampton), Wigglesworth (Saracens), Cipriani (Sale), Twelvetrees (Gloucester).
