England and Scotland s Six Nations on the line in Calcutta Cup clash

LONDON – England and Scotland head into their Calcutta Cup encounter at Twickenham on Feb 22 knowing the outcome could determine the fate of their respective Six Nations campaigns.

Both sides have won one and lost one of their opening two fixtures, with England looking to prove a dramatic 26-25 defeat of France last time out that ended a run of seven straight losses to Tier One opponents was no fluke.

Scotland, meanwhile, are trying to recover from a 32-18 loss at home to Ireland.

With unbeaten Ireland continuing their quest for an unprecedented third successive Six Nations title away to struggling Wales, a second loss of the tournament would likely spell the end of either England or Scotland’s championship hopes.

“We don’t want to be a team that has to react (to defeats) to get a performance you want,” said England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth.

“The best teams find a way of getting better and getting results and it will be a big test for us this weekend to make sure we take the next step.”

England’s 30-21 loss to Scotland in 2024 was especially galling, according to the coach.

“We made a huge amount of errors in that game which happens in a game of rugby, but they were errors that were unlike us,” he added. “They were tentative errors and that is not what we wanted to be.”

Scotland, fresh from a warm-weather training camp in Spain, are aiming for a fifth straight win over England in what is rugby union’s oldest international fixture, with the cross-border rivals first meeting in 1871.

They have been boosted by the availability of co-captain Finn Russell after the fly-half suffered a concussion following a first-half clash of heads with teammate Darcy Graham in the Ireland match.

Dashing wing Graham, however,