Scots must be 'calm among chaos' to beat England

Guinness Men's Six Nations: England v Scotland

Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Saturday, 22 February Kick-off: 16:45 GMT

Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 5 Live & BBC Sounds, live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and app

Scotland must be "calm among the chaos" of the Calcutta Cup if they are to secure a fifth successive win against England, according to head coach Gregor Townsend.

Townsend's side are fourth in the Six Nations table after two rounds of fixtures, one point behind third-placed England, who they face on Saturday.

The Scots were beaten 32-18 by Ireland at Murrayfield last time out after their opening win against Italy, and must win to keep any realistic title hopes alive.

If they are to do so, Townsend says his players must find a balance between passion and clarity at Twickenham.

"It's there before every Test match, and in particular in the Six Nations," he said.

"I would say in the past too much emotion came out, and not enough calmness and clarity in what we were doing.

"I know the passion will be there, the passion will be there to play for your teammates, to play for your country, to show an improved performance from the last game, but we have to be calm amongst the chaos, which there will be at times."

Townsend has only lost one of seven matches against England as head coach, and has never lost at Twickenham with two wins since the exhilarating 38-38 draw in 2019.

Despite that impressive record, Townsend is under no illusions as to the task that awaits south of the border.

"Playing at Twickenham is always one of our hardest games and in recent years we've got on the right side of the result," he said.

"But they've been very close games and we've had to play very, very well to get those wins. So we know that's what we'll have to do on Saturday."

Scotland fly-half Finn Russell has been declared fit to start on Saturday, but wing Darcy Graham is not involved in the matchday 23.

Both players suffered concussions after they collided in the first half of the heavy home defeat by Ireland on 9 February.

Russell passed a head injury assessment after the collision, but national team medics were uneasy about him continuing, while Graham was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Graham is replaced with Glasgow Warriors' Kyle Rowe, while there are two further changes for the trip to London.

Loose-head prop Pierre Schoeman and flanker Jamie Ritchie come into the starting XV, with Rory Sutherland and Matt Fagerson dropping to the bench.

Townsend has once again named a six-two split on the bench, with Jamie Dobie and Stafford McDowall the only replacement options in the backs.

Tom English, BBC Sport Scotland's chief sports writer

Sir Clive Woodward gave the Scottish forwards a blast in his newspaper column on Thursday, a withering assessment of their lack of power and how England's supposed monsters up front are going to take them to the cleaners. We shall see.

This ought to be grist to the mill of the Scottish pack. Ritchie is back in for his breakdown prowess. Scotland have been beaten on the floor in this championship and England's back-row could do it again if Scotland don't make massive improvements.

On his best days, Ritchie is belligerence personified. Saturday needs to be one of his better ones.

Fagerson being dropped from the back row is not a surprise. He has not hit fever pitch yet. Not even close. Maybe he'll find the fire off the bench.

Russell has been at the heart of Scotland's four in a row against England and it's a relief that he's made it through his concussion protocols.

He's not been himself so far in the Six Nations. Time for the genius to reappear.

Graham was always fighting an uphill battle to recover, but Rowe is a stellar replacement. He doesn't posses the game-breaking wonders of Graham, but he's a reliable and intelligent footballer.

Some thought that Gregor Brown would start this one given the lack of dynamism from the second-row against Ireland. That's still a worry in this team.

Not enough go-forward men up front. However, Pierre Schoeman's return does add some ball-carrying grunt.

From more than one source this week we've heard the Scottish forwards being all but written off. There's only one way to answer that.

Scotland: Kinghorn, Rowe, Jones, Jordan, Van der Merwe, Russell (co-captain), White; Schoeman, Cherry, Z Fagerson, Gray, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Darge (co-captain), Dempsey.

Replacements: Ashman, Sutherland, Hurd, Skinner, Brown, M Fagerson, Dobie, McDowall.