Defending champions England and Scotland gear up for Six Nations curtain-raiser at Twickenham

England will wear special shirts at Twickenham on Saturday to mark the 150th birthday of rugby’s oldest international fixture — and strive for a special performance to ignite their Six Nations title defence.

At the end of a week full of talk about the historical significance of their showdown with Scotland, Eddie Jones’ side can celebrate the past by delivering in the present and allowing the future to take shape in due course. The hosts and their opponents should block out any thought of the bigger picture to treat their latest collision as the be-all and end-all.

Never mind what it all means for the World Cup in 2023. Never mind treating it as yet another precious learning tool. Too much of Test rugby these days is regarded as merely part of a long-term process, with defeats held up as a more valuable development aid than victories.

Let that thinking be left at the door on Saturday. England and Scotland can do this fixture the courtesy of hurling themselves into it as if it’s a standalone event and the only thing on earth that matters. Win the Test. Play well. Fulfil potential. Honour the long, rich history.

Afterwards, when the dust has settled, it can be time to find pointers that suggest problems need solving. But the aim must be for all best-laid plans to slot into place for this momentous game, rather than just settling for baby steps in the right direction.

England will be expected to win. Quite right, too. They are defending their title and had a successful spell late last year when they added the Autumn Nations Cup to the cluttered cabinet at Twickenham. But they are seeking fluency. They have re-established a precious winning habit, but there is no sign yet of swaggering authority. 

Jones railed against criticism of negative tactics throughout November and early December, but he and his players conceded that they didn’t really hit their stride in sweeping all before them.

Owen Farrell is back at No 10 in a re-jigged midfield and the Red Rose line-up appears to have real balance and menace, so there is no reason why they can’t function as the sum of their quality parts.

Viewers at home — and there will be several millions of them in this last Six Nations of wall-to-wall terrestrial TV coverage — will want to see Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade carving up in midfield. They will want to see a potent back three of Jonny May, Anthony Watson and Elliot Daly being unleashed to wreak havoc and score tries.

It is not a matter of entertainment for the sake of it, it is about the pressing need for a multi-purpose repertoire. As South Africa proved in the World Cup final and France have also shown since, not all opposition teams will bend the knee in the face of English pressure, in which case there needs to be a high-tempo fall-back plan.

The party line is that it takes a long time to build an attack, but these are all superb players who have been honing their rugby instincts since a young age. Catch-and-pass staples should be engrained so that all it needs is a fine-tuning of the tactical framework. That needn’t take an age. There is no reason why England can’t run riot on Saturday with all the talent in their ranks.

But they won’t have it all their own way. The good news is that this rivalry matters again. It has been resuscitated from what had appeared to be a terminal decline. In recent times, Scotland won with a breakdown masterclass in 2018, fought back from 31-0 down to draw 38-38 in 2019 and were right in the hunt last year until Ellis Genge’s late try. 

Gregor Townsend is sending out a good team, enhanced by the addition of Cameron Redpath to operate alongside Finn Russell, the sorcerer-playmaker. Scotland really can threaten England, but only if their forwards front up against the imposing home pack.

Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson are capable of mixing it with the formidable English back row, while Rory Sutherland has the clout and belief to obtain scrum parity, in the absence of three leading England props. That Scottish trio can all make statements on Saturday about their Lions credentials, in front of Warren Gatland.

There is no escaping the fact that the game will lack grandeur without a crowd. This fixture relies on the perennial spark of cross-border tension, but Farrell insisted that the fervour still exists between the teams — even if it is not loudly echoed in the stands.

The glorious mayhem of 2019 can’t be repeated — that was a freakish one-off classic. But this is shaping up as a fascinating encounter which can serve as a fitting birthday party. England to win, but not by a street, which would seem like an appropriate illustration of how the rivalry stands, after all these years.