"We should have won" – Scotland coach Gregor Townsend recalls 38-38 Six Nations draw against England

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Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has enjoyed quite the successful run against England, as his side has kept a hold of the Calcutta Cup for the past four years. This Saturday, Scotland have the opportunity to make history with a fifth consecutive win over their old enemies, which would stand as the joint best era of Scotland success in the history of rugby’s oldest international fixture.

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England and Scotland first took on each other some 153 years ago, as Raeburn Place, Edinburgh held the first ever rugby union Test match in 1871. Scotland achieved the win upon the inaugural encounter, with a hard-fought 1-0 win pleasing the perplexed home fans in the Scottish capital. Scotland achieved their first five match winning streak from 1893 to 1897, with the modern iteration of the tartan titans matching the four-peat accolade in the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

Gregor Townsend played for Scotland from 1993 to 2003, with 82 Test caps to his name throughout his on-field career. The versatile back was well adapted to play across fly half, centre and at fullback, yet did not enjoy too much success against England as a player. During the 10 meetings Townsend could recall with the old Anglo enemies, the former Scotland playmaker could only recall one victory from his days as a player. The rarity of the win on 19-13 Murrayfield win in 2000 made it all the more special for Scotland, with Townsend blown away by the success of his current side against Steve Borthwick’s men.

“I played England 10 times, and only won on one occasion, and on that one occasion, while it was a memorable game for us, it was a horrible game. Sleet and snow at the beginning of the game. But it was a great one for us, and the wins were few and far between.”

“2018 (Scotland 25-13 England, Murrayfield) was such a pivotal game for us, for where the team has gone, especially against England the last few years, but the way the team played that day were excellent, defense in the second half was outstanding and England had been either one or two in the world, they’d had a really good run prior to that one.

“Two years ago (Scotland 29-23 England, Twickenham). It was an amazing game. So that ranks really highly. We hadn’t won a Twickenham for a long time. I know we’d won two years before that, but there was no fans. That was the breakthrough game to actually win at Twickenham, playing excellent rugby with the full support there. It had been a tough venue for us. And I suppose that if you’re saying three, you have to have the draw, because it was just such a crazy game.

“I think the Scotland (versus) England game. We’ve come off the right side a few times, but they’ve been cracking games. The game two years ago, It was a brilliant game. The draw was a unique game in the history of our fixture. And that wasn’t always the case, like I remember in the early 2000s even in the 90s, there were dull games. Not many tries scored.”

One recent Calcutta Cup meeting that lives long in the memory for both England and Scotland fans, was the immortalised 2019 encounter at the Allianz Stadium. England took an immense 31-0 lead into half-time, before a re-born Scotland retaliated with one of the all-time great comebacks, to take a 38-31 lead into the closing moments in Twickenham. George Ford’s last ditch try denied Scotland their victory, with England settling for the 38-38 draw at the end of 80 minutes.

“You’d never think that we were going to be in a position to win, being 31 nil down.” Townsend said, as he recalled his thoughts on the classic Calcutta Cup match. “Even at half time we talked about just winning in the second half, and coming away from the game with respect.

“Two years before, there had been a heavy defeat, and it was on the cards it would be another heavy defeat. So to see that second half, we just saw how much momentum swung to our favor, and the players playing their best rugby was great.

“A draw, we would have liked to have got the win. We should have won. Finn had a great kick into the 22 and all we need to do is defend a couple of line-outs then three or four phases, but we give them a penalty, which we didn’t need to do. But you know, the game probably deserved a draw, given how well England had played in the first half.”

The ‘great escape’ from Twickenham in 2019, and the trend-breaking 2018 triumph, have been used time and again to motivate Scotland to battle on, when Gregor Townsend’s side has their backs to the wall. The Scotland heads coach expressed how such matches opitimise the fight which he wants to see in his players, when the Calcutta Cup goes back on the line this Saturday in the 2025 Six Nations.

“We (are) still hugely aware that England are a top, top opponent, and winning at Twickenham is very difficuly. But I’m proud, really proud of the players to have broken a cycle that had been going on for decades, and do it in a style that really brought out all our strengths. And games, like whether it was a 2018 win, or the first time we won at Twickenham, those are reference points for the belief of the group when they’re in trouble in a game, or the opposition momentum. They’d go, ‘No, we’ve been here before, and this is what we’ve done to win as well.’

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