Ben Youngs wary of wounded Scotland in Six Nations match at Twickenham

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/08/ben-youngs-england-scotland-six-nations

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England have been warned to beware a wounded Scotland at Twickenham as they seek to regroup following their own disappointing defeat to Ireland in Dublin. The Scots have a grim record at Twickenham but England’s scrum-half Ben Youngs believes the home side’s younger players will still be surprised by the intensity of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup contest.

Despite their opponents’ recent home loss to Italy, Youngs has played with and against enough Scottish players to know the mere sight of a white jersey is enough to arouse significant passion. “I think that might have something to do with it,” said Youngs, who made his Test debut at Murrayfield in 2010. “It always seems to be the case. The Scotland that played against Italy won’t be the same we face. The Scottish teams that turn up are very different to the ones you watch on tape.”

The Twickenham statistics do not necessarily back up that argument – Scotland have never won a Six Nations game in London and have not secured the Calcutta Cup on English soil since 1983 – but England’s players always have plenty of bruises afterwards. “They seem a lot more physical, more confrontational and seem to perform better,” Youngs said. “It is England-Scotland, there is a huge amount of rivalry and history, that history adds the fuel and it becomes a very easy game for them to get up for. It is their biggest game. It is like when we face New Zealand.

“That is the game you really want to play in, the team you want to play against. I imagine it might be the way they feel. I don’t know but it seems that way in terms of how they get up for it and embrace the rivalry.”

England’s minds will also be concentrated by the possibility of winning the title on points difference should Wales do them a favour and defeat Ireland in Cardiff. There is also the issue of regathering some momentum for this autumn’s World Cup, with Youngs having been reminded by the World Cup-winning All Black Brad Thorn, now a Leicester team-mate, that much can change before September.

“I spoke to Brad, who said that New Zealand lost to Australia in the Tri Nations in 2011 but no one remembers that. He told me not to beat myself up too much. We haven’t won the Grand Slam but the title is still up for grabs. We are disappointed not to get the result but we will be delighted if we were to win the championship because it is a very hard thing to win.”

Youngs, who is set to win his 46th England cap, freely admits losing to Ireland was “a blow” to everyone associated with the squad. “It’s a real dampener but it’s a good test of character to see how you react to it. We can go either one way or the other. The way we’ve got to see it is that we’re still very much in this championship.”

The team’s review, even so, was a painful experience. “We all agreed when we sat down and reviewed it that you can’t be as ill-disciplined as we were and give teams easy outs. Discipline is a key thing. At the breakdown we lost a couple of balls … the try they scored we got counter-rucked off it. We’ve got to make sure we tidy up all those bits.”

Channelling that frustration is now the aim, as happened in the autumn after the defeats to New Zealand and South Africa. “It is similar to how it was coming into the Samoa and Australia games [in November],” Youngs said. “We have got to make sure we finish like that and give us a real good platform going into the summer camp.

“Chris Robshaw spoke really well after the Ireland game. He said the championship’s not over, that last year it came down to points and to make sure we get our gameplan sorted. We don’t ever want to rely on other teams doing us a favour but Ireland have got to go to Wales and we’ll see where we are come the last weekend.”