England are “there for the taking” says Tim Swinson as he believes Scotland will come out fighting in the Calcutta Cup game on Saturday.
The English-born lock didn’t much enjoy his RBS 6 Nations debut in Dublin, but while admitting “there was a big gap” between Scotland and Ireland and that there is “lot of stuff to work on”, he’s backing the squad to bounce back immediately from Sunday’s dismal loss in the Aviva Stadium.
However, the team will try to regain the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2008 without British Lion Sean Maitland, who was ruled out after assessment to concussion and right leg injuries.
The 25-year-old wing landed heavily after a mid-air collision with Ireland’s Dave Kearney after just half an hour and was helped from the field.
His leg injury will be further assessed by consultant surgeon Graham Lawson of Spire Murrayfield Hospital.
Maitland scored a try in his full Scotland debut against England at Twickenham last year. He later toured Australia with the Lions but did not appear in a test match.
The Scots watched “Le Crunch” on Saturday night but Swinson’s view on it hadn’t changed after the Dublin disappointment.
“England are a team for the taking,” he stressed.
“France played well in parts, but they didn’t put in a whole team performance and yet still beat England. They managed to hold on and get a good try at the end to win. “England will be hurting from that and will be wanting to come up to Murrayfield and prove a point but Scotland have also got to front up and really drive forward.
“It’s something we can really take forward and when we really improve from what we did this week, we can take the good parts and build on that.”
Swinson was also unimpressed by the plaudits heaped on England’s second row pairing Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury despite the loss in Paris.
“English commentators on English players,” he said.
“They always get a lot of praise that way.”
However, the lock is under no illusions that a repeat of Scotland’s display in Dublin would be unlikely to beat the English.
“There were times in both halves we looked a good team that could beat anyone in the Six Nations and then, obviously, there were times we didn’t,” he said.
“We’ve got to review the game and there will be a lot of soul searching and looking at the things we did wrong and improving on that, but it definitely doesn’t get bigger than England at Murrayfield.
“We’ve got the character to bounce back.
“We’ve got a huge desire to win and to prove ourselves, not just as rugby players but as a team and that’s something we’ve got to take week to week.
“It didn’t come off against Ireland but now we’ve got to really go forward and take it to the English.”