Even without the hurricane blowing pedestrians in Edinburgh yesterday, England are under no illusions about today's Calcutta Cup showdown. Familiar villains lie in wait and three years of surprise losses to Celtic rivals have taught Clive Woodward to sense danger away from home regardless of the weather.
Accordingly, Woodward and co have been concentrating on the basics prior to the start of the Six Nations. For as the England manager admits when the dog-eared subject of his side's defeat here two years ago is raised, it was not the monsoonal downpour which foiled them but a failure to get a grip of the scrums and lineouts.
"It wasn't the conditions, we just got belted in the forwards," he said yesterday. "If you get set-pieces wrong at this level, that's where you lose Test matches." Not to mention the odd grand slam or three.
For that reason, Woodward is using words like "pragmatic" far more often than, for example, 12 months ago. Much work has been done on the lineout, a critical area where Scotland are usually strong, and that old chestnut about learning from defeat no longer appeals. "Sometimes from setbacks you can become stronger," said Woodward yesterday. "But I have to say I'm sick and tired of these setbacks and I don't want there to be any more. I've done enough learning in the last four years."
England's Richard Hill admits the near-misses of the past three years have been "a bitter pill to take" for all involved. "If anything it enhances the desire to achieve one. But it also makes you aware how difficult it is and how it can all go wrong. The last time we went to Murrayfield was a complete nightmare."
As if Scotland needed any further incentive, today is their 500th competitive international, with home fans being urged to wear kilts and bring their bagpipes. Next year the rhythm of the Six Nations will also be subtly different, with a new concertinaed schedule favouring the likes of England with their greater squad depth.
This season, though, the visitors have had scant preparation time and if the Scots fail to make life difficult for them, such inspirational backroom figures such as Pat Lam and Alan Tait will want to know why.
As Gregor Townsend has also noted, England will not have the axed Mike Catt to hurl out those long, defence-splitting balls which carved open the Scots in their 43-3 defeat at Twickenham last year. "I was very surprised that England didn't pick him," Townsend said yesterday.
Austin Healey will no doubt pop up to try something similar but even he cannot throw passes to himself. What will transpire, too, if Kyran Bracken gets injured and the 20-year-old Nick Duncombe, veteran of three senior games for Harlequins, trots out?
Scottish cynics looking for other potential holes in England's gleaming armour might also claim that neither the Wallaby nor Springbok sides soundly beaten at Twickenham last autumn were in top form or humour. Apart from the half-backs, it is also true that no unit of this England team has started more than three consecutive Tests together.
Still, England should be good enough to win by six to 10 points but the road to that elusive grand slam is never smooth.
Scotland v England
Murrayfield, Saturday, 4.0
ON TELEVISION: BBC, Network 2
REPLACEMENTS
SCOTLAND: R Russell (Saracens), G Graham (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh), J Petrie (Glasgow), A Nicol (Glasgow), A Henderson (Glasgow), J Steel (Glasgow).
ENGLAND: M Regan (Bath), J Leonard (Harlequins), D Grewcock (Bath), M Corry (Leicester), N Duncombe (Harlequins), C Hodgson (Sale), I Balshaw (Bath).
REFEREE: Steve Walsh (New Zealand).
TOUCH JUDGES: Peter Marshall (Australia) and Joel Jutge (France).
