Scotland don’t care about gaining the respect of the English, just about producing a display at Twickenham this weekend that the country can be proud of, believes coach Matt Taylor.
Full back Stuart Hogg said at the weekend that it rankled with him that the English had no respect for Scottish rugby based on recent results.
“The English are a fantastic team but they’re pretty much all about themselves,” Hogg was quoted in an English newspaper. “They don’t really respect us and we find that pretty frustrating.
“We’re not really in a position to make them respect us when we’re zero wins from three, so for that to happen we need to go down there and shut them up with a great performance and a big win.”
However Taylor is less concerned about what the English feel about Scotland than what the squad feel about themselves after the dispiriting loss to Italy two weeks ago.
“I don’t see (a lack of respect) at all,” said the defensive specialist. “I don’t see that at all from down there. Under Stuart Lancaster they are quite a humble group and they will be taking us seriously.
“Anyway, it’s about us. We just want to win, the coaches, the players and the fans. I think we are headed in the right direction our first two games showed that even though we didn’t get the results.
“It might have been a step backward last weekend, but that’s what happens in sport two steps forward and one step back. All we can do is bounce back and go down here to put on a performance that we can be proud of, and that the nation can be proud of.
“Sometimes you don’t always get the win but if you put in a performance that everyone is proud of then you can hold your head up high, so that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
Scotland’s main task over the first day back is to review and regroup, but there will be work on countering the maul, a major failure against the Italians and an area where England are certain to attack.
“You can’t do everything in a week,” he admitted. “Basically if you don’t get your attitude and technique spot on then it is hard to stop.
“England have a strong maul attack and work something like 70 per cent of their lineout ball off it. Sometimes they’ll try to maul for a try, sometimes to create little breakouts, they can go short or wide. We need to be able to deal with it.
“Against Italy were were a bit off with our technique, and maybe also with the aggression, and if you are off against a good attacking team they will expose you.”
The Scotland team are highly motivated to produce at Twickenham, despite their poor record there.
“Everyone knows it’s 30 years since we won the Calcutta Cup there so it won’t be easy,” he said. “But they understand they represent every Scottish person who comes to games and support them and that the fans are disappointed.
“We could have been sitting here three games up, but unfortunately we are not and we need to get the little things right.
“We’ve just got to go down there, focus on our game and execute it as well as we can. We need to turn up with the right mind-set in terms of our aggression and work-rate and if we do those things, we can do well against anyone.
“But if we are slightly off then we know anyone can beat us, so we need to be really focussed and committed.”
Scotland added two more to their training squad with Sean Lamont confirmed to be out of the rest of the championship with the knee injury he sustained playing for Glasgow on Friday.
Sean Maitland, out since Glasgow’s near-thing against Bath in the European Champions Rugby Cup, is back in the squad and in contention for a start at the venue where he made his Scotland debut and scored a try two years ago.
In addition, converted back rower Stuart McInally, now playing at hooker, joins the squad with first choice Ross Ford recovering from back spasms after the Italy game, but this is thought to be merely precautionary and mostly to get a closer look at McInally’s development in his new position.
Scotland’s other injury doubt is Peter Horne, who is undergoing concussion protocols after taking a head knock for Glasgow on Friday, but Finn Russell, banned from the Italy match after his retrospective red card against Wales, is now available to resume at fly-half if selected.