England legend Chris Ashton previews the Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland

Off the back of a last minute 26-25 win over France, England go into this match with high hopes. An exciting performance from fly half Fin Smith made sure that they would remain in the running for the Six Nations title.

Scotland have endured a mixed start to their Six Nations campaign. After a rocky performance at home to Italy, in which they were never able to fully pull away from the Azzurri, the Scots were soundly beaten by Ireland last week.

With Scotland having retained the Calcutta Cup since 2021, England will be desperate to revert the trend and press on in their quest for Six Nations glory.

The Calcutta Cup is always a memorable fixture and one that is marked down in calendars. Speaking to Ruck, former England winger Chris Ashton gave his view on the occasion.

"Oh, it is amazing, because of families and the rivalry and the Six Nations and, you just want to beat Scotland. You don't want to get beat by any home nation."

"I was lucky when I never managed to get beaten by Scotland. That's obviously all changed in the last five years for the lads."

"The Scottish team has come on amazingly. Still they haven't managed to get anything done yet, which has to be a concern for Gregor because they've got such good players and not probably used them to the full potential and not being able to get a win other than the Calcutta Cup for the past four times, which England will not be happy about.

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"And hopefully, they can change on the weekend. But my experience is it's always a hard, tough game, and it was never one that I lost thankfully."

England vs Scotland always has the temperament to explode. A noteworthy event between Scotland's Ryan Wilson and England's Owen Farrell comes to mind as they were involved in a pre-match scuffle in 2018, prior to Wilson helping to end Scotland's 10 year hoodoo in the Calcutta Cup.

A major talking point as of late has been surrounding fly halves Marcus Smith and Fin Smith. Marcus Smith has been the preferred option recently but Fin Smith's club form at Northampton Saints cannot be ignored.

The Harlequins fly half will continue in a full back role against Scotland. The tactical shift to accomodate both playmakers has sparked debate. Ashton believes it is an experiment worth persisting with.

"Well, I mean, it's the first time they've done it, starting a game last weekend. So I think give it another go. Why not? You can’t expect it to work straight off. It's just not the way it's going to go."

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"I think it'd be wrong to make any sort of drastic changes, which is what Steve's had to do really is make a lot of changes."

"So I think he'll be happy that he's got to just let the lads go at it again. And it could be the future. I don't see why not. It could be."

Last week, Fin Smith took all the plaudits for a mature and tacticial approach to the game. With a strong Saints contingent in the back line, consisting of Alex Mitchell, Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme, Smith was able to get the best out of those around him.

Meanwhile, Marcus Smith performed on a quieter scale but he was still effective. With a few dangerous carries and an assuring performance when under the ball, it is safe to say the combination worked.

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"If you win, people don't question anything. It's when you start losing and you're doing things that maybe are slightly out of the box that people start to say, hang on", said Ashton.

While Scotland have built a strong and competitive squad, that is packed with talent, they have not been able to fully challenge for titles or success. With pool stage exits the 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cup editions, Scotland have failed to 'show up' in matches that matter.

"The coaches know they've got a good set of players, but haven't been able to get results that they should have got."

"Like France last year, they should have beaten them and they didn't. It's close fixtures where if you're talking that you've got such good players and good squad that you should be seeing them through in order to make it justified or actually win something or come close to winning the Six Nations Week period every year."

"And then they just get blown away again by Ireland. So something's amiss."

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Scotland's inability to compete with the best on a regular basis could be down to the set up of Scottish rugby as a whole.

"I don't think it can change, really. That is the situation that they're in, and they're doing unbelievably well with what they've got, which is why people are slightly confused about the England situation because we've got so many players playing and participating."

"We still find ourselves in a similar position to Scotland where we haven't got a replacement bench that's really strong to come on and finish games. Whereas Scotland, they've got this really small pool and they're just maximizing what they've got."

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"And maybe we should look at it the other way and go, Scotland is doing really, really well better than they're exceeding what they ever should be really."

"So we should be happy about that, but that's just not human nature, is it? You always want to win, win, win and keep doing well."

"And when you've got a player like Finn Russell or a Darcy Graham or all these players that they've got, it's a shame for them really personally that they aren't able to really confirm things by winning a trophy like the Six Nations so far. Go throughout your career having world class players who have not been able to win Six Nations so far."