Townsend preparing for 'most important game of the season' as they look to make history in Calcutta Cup clash

Gregor Townsend insists that the game against England is Scotland’s “most important of the season” as they look to win the Calcutta Cup clash four years in a row for the first time in 128 years.

The national team have one win and a defeat from their opening two Six Nations games and they return to Edinburgh on Saturday to host the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield.

And the Scotland boss says they will use the history and emotion surrounding the fixture to drive them on to another big result.

Townsend’s men secured their first win in Cardiff in 22 years when they beat Wales in the opening game before falling to a controversial late defeat to France last weekend.

Scotland are looking to secure their fourth win in a row over their cross-border rivals for the first time since 1972 following on from an impressive 29-23 win at Twickenham last year.

They have lost only one of the last six meetings between the pair and got their first away victory over England since 1983 in 2021, albeit in a game played behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic.

A 20-17 win at Murrayfield came the following year before 2023’s win in London, this time in front of a packed stadium.

They haven’t won four Calcutta Cup games in a row over England since 1896 when the tournament was still known as the Home Nation Championships and played between only four teams before France and then Italy were added to make it the Six Nations.

So with a chance to make history on Saturday, Townsend is keen to use that as a motivation to get his team back to winning ways and keep the Calcutta Cup trophy in Scotland.

Speaking on Thursday, he said: “I think when you are on the back of a defeat you obviously have to win and bounce back with a victory.

“We are not thinking of championships right now, and we will see where we are after Saturday, but the focus is on this game and the focus is on this game because is it our most important game of the season.

“It’s the most important game for our supporters, we do play for a trophy in amongst the championship and triple crown and other trophies, but this is one we are focused on more than the others.

“That probably shouldn’t be the case, but it is, it’s history, it’s emotion and we have seen the impact it can have on Scottish supporters when we do manage to get a result in this fixture so that will drive us on Saturday.”

England have won their opening two games against Italy and Wales and currently sit three points ahead of Scotland in the table.

Saturday’s game will take place at Murrayfield with a 4.45pm kick-off in what will be Scotland’s last home game of the championships.

Following that they will play Italy in Rome before finishing the campaign with a trip to Ireland to take on the team ranked second in the world and best in Europe.