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England have vowed to bring “nastiness” to Saturday’s crunch Six Nations showdown with Scotland.
Gregor Townsend’s team, who are seeking a fifth consecutive Calcutta Cup success, were criticised for a perceived lack of physicality during a comprehensive 32-18 round-two loss to Ireland.
Steve Borthwick’s hosts are braced for a backlash when the Scots take to the field at Twickenham.
England scrum coach Tom Harrison said: “Most games come down to physicality, especially around the contact area, around the set-piece, around the collision.
“I expect Scotland to be fired up in that area and I think you’ll see a different Scotland when they play against England.”
Asked about England’s poor recent record in the fixture, Harrison continued “We’ve spoken about it as a group. Everyone says teams who play against England ‘they find a bit extra, they find a bit extra’ but actually there’s a nastiness to us.
“We want to win the Calcutta Cup back here. We haven’t done so and we want to do that.”
Following respective defeats to reigning champions Ireland across the opening two weekends of the tournament, the two sides each require victory at Allianz Stadium to retain realistic title hopes.
England’s only win over Scotland across the last seven meetings was a 13-6 Murrayfield triumph in 2020 en route to Six Nations glory under Eddie Jones. They have not beaten the Scots in south-west London since 2017.
“There’s loads of blokes who are playing week in with these (Scotland) players,” said Harrison. “You lose to someone, you have to wear it for the whole year. Every day you go to a club, you have to know that they got the better of you.
“So yeah, I think everyone’s got their different reasons why they want to win and how deep that hurt goes. There’s definitely a want to win, and a want to win the cup.”
Head coach Borthwick has made just one change to his starting XV following a thrilling 26-25 victory against France, with Ollie Chessum replacing injured lock George Martin, while Ted Hill has been added to the replacements.
England No 8 Tom Willis is preparing to face Scotland for the first time, having grown up watching Six Nations contests from the Twickenham terraces alongside his father and elder brother, Toulouse flanker Jack Willis.
Asked to expand on Harrison’s reference to “nastiness”, the 26-year-old Saracens player said: “The way we compete with each other in the week sets the tone for the weekends.
“We’ve got some unbelievable players in the squad, and everyone drives each other on. Naturally you need an element of nastiness in you, from that competitive side of things, to push each other on.
“I think that lends itself to the best performance possible. And, yeah, it gives you that competitive edge, hopefully.”
