Tom Willis: England will bring 'nastiness' to Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland

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England back row Tom Willis and his scrum coach Tom Harrison, have expressed how the side will bring an added ‘nastiness’ to tomorrow’s Calcutta Cup match. England are vying to end Scotland’s four year run of dominance in the Six Nations, and bring the historic piece of rugby silverware back to the Allianz Stadium, for the first time since 2020.

A focal point of this week has been how Scotland often elevate their game, when they come up against their old English enemies. Gregor Townsend’s side view this fixture as the must-win match of the Six Nations, and this attitude has seen the Calcutta Cup retained North of the border for the past four meetings. England scrum coach Harrison first explained his team’s intentions for an extra ‘nastiness’, which is set to meet Scotland head on tomorrow afternoon.

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“I'm always hungry.” Harrison said. “We've spoken about it as a group, everyone says teams that play against England, they find a bit extra. They find a bit extra, but actually there's a nastiness to us. We want to win the Calcutta Cup back here. We haven't, so we want to do that.”

England number eight Tom Willis echoed his set-piece coach, as the Saracen prepares for his first Calcutta Cup match of his career. Willis has been named to lead in the eight shirt for the second consecutive week, after picking up his first Test start a fortnight ago against France. Willis has been taking the England back row by storm, and is eager to enter the fray for his first hit out against England’s oldest rivals.

“I think the way we compete with each other in the week sets the tone for the weekends. I think we’ve got some unbelievable players in the squad, and everyone drives each other on. I think naturally you need an element of nastiness in you, from that competitive side of things, to push each other on. That lends itself to the best performance possible. And, yeah, it gives you that competitive edge.”

“I’m unbelievably excited. Obviously the last few weeks, I’ve had a taste of playing in the shirt and it’s been unbelievable, I’ve loved every minute. The Calcutta Cup is a massive game that I grew up watching and to be part of one is going to be massive.

“It’s been unbelievable so far, loved it. To get as many (England) minutes as I have in the last few weeks, I’ve massively enjoyed it and it’s something that I’ve wanted to achieve for long time now.”

England have endured the gut-punch of defeat, for the past four years against the jubilant Scots. With an assortment of Scotland’s players plying their trade in the Premiership, Harrison explained how there are plenty of personal battles in store to secure the Anglo-Scottish bragging rights across the clubs. With the likes of Finn Russell at Bath and Will Hurd at Leicester Tigers, the England players are adamant to return to their clubs with the Calcutta Cup in the Allianz Stadium trophy cabinet.

“You want to win every test match you play in.” Tom Harrison added. “You want to win every Six Nations test match. How, there’s loads of blokes who are playing week in with these players. You lose to someone, you have to wear it for the whole year. Every day you go to a club. You have to know that they got the better of you.

“So yeah, I think everyone’s got their different reasons why they want to win and how deep that hurt goes. But yeah, there’s definitely a want to win, and a want to win the cup.”

There has been plenty of discussion around how this week’s England training has had an added ‘edge’, with the likes of Tom Curry and Maro Itoje commenting on the ‘bite’ of the preparations. Willis echoed these thoughts, with the Saracen one such player who has been battling tooth and nail for a space in the Calcutta Cup match day squad.

“The level of training we’ve put out, the level of competitiveness we put out, has just built naturally, week on week.” Willis explained. “Obviously, this is a huge game, and it’s one we’re very excited for.”

Ted Hill is another England player that has elevated his performance throughout the week, with the Bath man bestowed a late call-up into Steve Borthwick’s plans for Saturday. Hill enters the fray to replace George Martin, with the Leicester Tigers man ruled out of the fixture with a knee injury.

“I grew up playing with Ted and I don’t think there’s any question around his capabilities.” Willis added. “He’s an unbelievable athlete, there’s no question around what position he’s playing. He’s an unbelievable rugby player and he’ll bring what he needs to bring this weekend.”

Harrison is excited to see how Hill will fare in his newfound role at lock, with the regular back row adding another string to his bow. The scrum coach discussed the assortment of multi-tool England players that are ready to be unleashed, with positional flexibility a highly sort after trait for the national team selectors.

“He (Ted Hill) has played games for Bath at lock. Tom has played games and trained in the row, Chandler (Cunningham-South) has trained in the row. It is really interesting. It is named and everyone goes it is  big thing but we have been doing it for three weeks.”

“What we speak a lot about is position flexibility. We speak about Marcus (Smith) playing 10 or 15, Elliot Daly can play across the whole back-line. Tommy Freeman could play 13, Asher (Opoku-Fordjour) could play both sides of the scrum, Ben Earl plays seven, eight, six. [Willis] plays eight, six, second row. It’s something we are always training so we can select the best players and when opportunities arise, they are ready.

Tom Willis added his own experiences of packing down the engine room of the scrum; “I’ve played five or six games (for Saracens) where the last half an hour I’ve ended up at lock, scrummaging there. Once you get a few reps there, at the end of the day you get those few technical bits right at the start and you just push as hard as you can, want to keep good shape and it’s all good.”

Keeping the script strictly on the scrum, Harrison explained his delight at how well the set-piece is progressing into England’s new generation. After Joe Marler hung up his boots at the end of 2024, and with no place in the Six Nations squad for Dan Cole, England’s front row in particular has entered a new era. Harrison is happy with how the young players are progressing, along with the experienced leaders.

“I think we've made progress in what we've been trying to achieve. We've had a younger group, we've had different players – Will Stuart, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis (Genge), Jamie George have really stepped forward in terms of leadership. And you've got Joe Heyes, Asher (Opoku-Fordjour), Bevan (Rodd), (Fin) Baxter, Theo (Dan) coming through, boys who are a bit younger. How the group has worked together has been exceptional and their development. A good wise group but also an exciting group coming through.

Focusing the scope upon Jamie George, Harrison was full of praise for the former England captain. Whilst the hooker has not been leading from the start in the 2025 Six Nations, the Saracen has had a tremendous impact off the bench, to bolster the second half scrummaging effort.

“He (Jamie George) has been exceptional, the way he and Luke Cowan-Dickie have worked in terms of leading the scrum and adding that bit of experience has been brilliant. Having that leadership in the last part of the game, we all know Jamie is exceptional in terms of his tactical understanding and the way he can galvanise players and people. Having that out there in that moment has been brilliant and adds to our game.”

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