By England Fan
February 22 2018

England will no doubt be expecting a tough battle this weekend up at Murrayfield.  The weather is expected to be very cold and the Scottish crowd will be in full voice for 'Flower of Scotland'.

 England need to come out of the blocks flying this weekend. and they need to be quicker and smarter than Scotland in every aspect of the game.  Scotland won against France but it was a close one and many say France were unlucky.

Every match for England in the Six Nations Championship is like a 'Final' and this one up in Scotland will be no different.  I expect the crowd to be very partisan as there is no love lost for the 'Auld Enemy'!  England beat Scotland 61v21 last year but that was at Twickenham and Scotland have come a long way since then.  So I am expecting a fire cracker of a match.

England's Nathan Hughes during a training session at Pennyhill Park PAImages

Nathan Hughes is back in the team and as Lawrence Dallagliosays  'He is a man on a mission'

Lock Joe Launchbury wins his 50th cap, having made his debut in 2012.  Head Coach Eddie Jones said "For any player to play 50 caps for their country is a wonderful achievement,"  "Joe has worked really hard to improve and is such an important player for us."

And Captain Dylan Hartley becomes England's second most capped player of all time when he makes his 92nd appearance, surpassing Jonny Wilkinson.

Scotland: Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Peter Horne ), Sean Maitland , Finn Russell , Greig Laidlaw ; Gordon Reid , Stuart McInally, Simon Berghan, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray , John Barclay, Hamish Watson , Ryan Wilson

Replacements: Scott Lawson , Jamie Bhatti , Willem Nel ), Tim Swinson , Dave Denton , Ali Price, Nick Grigg Blair Kinghorn . 

 So come on England do us proud this weekend!

England: Brown; Watson, Joseph, Farrell, May; Ford, Care; Vunipola, Hartley, Cole, Launchbury, Itoje, Lawes, Robshaw, Hughes.

Replacements: George, Marler, Williams, Kruis, Underhill, Wigglesworth, Te'o, Nowell