If the Calcutta Cup could speak, it would be developing a Scottish lilt. In its long history, the cherished silver pot has never spent such an extended period north of the border.

When England and Scotland cross swords again in the Men’s Six Nations on Saturday, Steve Borthwick’s side will go into the match in the unprecedented position of having won only once in the last seven encounters. Taking into account population, playing numbers and professional sides, it is a remarkable imbalance.

Scotland have tried hard to move past one result against England making or breaking a season, but it is a domination which brings an involuntary twitch to the corners of every Scottish mouth. England as their patsies? How delightful. Especially bearing in mind how routine Scotland defeats in the fixture had become during the 2010s.

When wing Sean Maitland made his debut in the 2013 Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham, England won by 20 points. It was, by the expectations of the time, the anticipated outcome. The following season England won by 20 points again, this time at Murrayfield, nilling a feeble Scotland in the process.

By 2017, when England thumped Scotland 61-21, it was getting to be a case of a bully kicking a tethered dog. Scotland had failed to win any of the previous nine Calcutta Cup matches. Then 2018 happened.

“England had a very, very talented team and the year after they made the World Cup final, but the stars just aligned for us. To this day that was one of my favourite games that I’ve ever played in,” says Maitland. “Our backs were against the wall, we hadn’t beaten England in ten years, but we literally played one of the perfect games.”

Hooker Stuart McInally recalls the final words of coach Gregor Townsend before kick-off as clear as day. “I remember Gregor saying in the huddle before kick-off: ‘Ten years is long enough’,” says McInally.

And so it proved. Scotland prevailed at a euphoric Murrayfield. The drought was over.

“That win just relieved so much pressure,” says Maitland. “Over the years it had built and built, so finally beating England in a Calcutta Cup game and ending those years of hurt and anguish against the old enemy was so massive.

“From that point on we knew we could actually compete with and beat England. We had finally got over the mental hurdle of beating them. That was the big turning point.”

Maitland’s fellow Lion Chris Harris, who had come into a Scotland squad struggling with a psychological white wall four months beforehand, agrees.

“That one win proved that we could do it. It was a massive confidence-booster. There was never any fear playing against England after that,” says the Gloucester centre.

It was no wet-weather smash and grab either. Scotland outscored England by three tries to one, including a gem from Maitland instigated by a death-or-glory cut-out pass in his own 22 from Finn Russell. It was a piece of performance art that could have been framed and hung in the National Galleries of Scotland.

“Throwing that pass was just mad when you think about it. It could have ended up with an intercept. Jonny May could have caught it and just run in under the sticks. But that’s just Finn and it was the perfect pass,” says Maitland.

“That left-hand pass of his is absolutely deadly. I was on the end of a couple of those flat, cut-out balls and he just hit Huw Jones perfectly. He could have gone all the way but a couple of phases later and I managed to get down in the corner. I was just holding the width and doing my job but it was such a special try.”

The footage of the celebrations afterwards in an Edinburgh pub, featuring hammered half-backs Russell and Greig Laidlaw – who tore off his buttoned-up shirt during a slurred rendition of Flower of Scotland – went far and wide.

“We didn’t have to pay for a single drink all night,” says Maitland. “We were celebrating like we had won the World Cup.

“When I went back to Saracens I was finally able to walk back in with a smile on my face. There had always been banter around England-Scotland, and it had been tough going back with so many of the England guys there after Calcutta Cup games, but that was my time to enjoy it. I took the high ground obviously being the humble character I am!”

When England strolled into a 31-0 lead at Twickenham the following season, it momentarily looked like the triumph might have been a one-game aberration. What followed, in one of the craziest Six Nations turnarounds in history, proved otherwise.

Scotland turned a 31-0 deficit into a 38-31 lead. Had it not been for George Ford’s late rescue act to salvage a draw for England, Townsend’s men would have ended their long wait for a win at Twickenham with something from the mind of a Caledonian fantasist.

“That was just a mad, mad game,” says Harris. “I was sinking into my seat on the bench when they were scoring a point a minute. But then Finn pulled a couple of moments out in the second half and from then on it was wild.

“At the end we scrambled across to stop Jonny May scoring in the corner but George Ford ended up going over nearer the posts and kicking the conversion to draw the game. Afterwards we were saying that maybe we should have just let Jonny score and given England a more difficult conversion.”

The elusive win at Twickenham finally arrived – after a 38-year-wait – on Scotland’s next visit, a result which in its own way was just as significant as the 2018 rot-stopper. Played out in an empty stadium during the Covid restrictions, it was a silent storming of the barricades.

While it was odd to hear the roars of the Scotland players at the end of the game rather than supporters, the reaction gave an unfiltered insight into how much the result meant. Having made their own piece of history, nothing could take away the pleasure of the moment.

“I know a crowd makes a big difference and it was played in an empty stadium but you still can’t look past how special that was. It had been a long time coming,” says Maitland.

Ben Youngs was England’s scrum-half that day. He felt that if England had enjoyed the backing of the usual home support in what was a very tight game, the result might have been different. The fact that Scotland were able to close out the victory changed the dynamic going forwards.

“Had we had a crowd that day at Twickenham I don’t think they’d have won,” says Youngs. “But after that, from being a formality for many years, Scotland became a bit of a bogey fixture for us. Winning at Twickenham gave them more belief than ever before that they could beat us.”

Beyond the pandemic, the tartan roll continued. Youngs had never tasted defeat in his first ten games against the Scots but suddenly the losses started to pile up. The mental terrors that Scotland had once faced began to work their way into English heads.

“Every game played out in the latter stages in the same way,” says Youngs. “The tighter England got through fear of losing, the looser and more expansive Scotland got with the hope of winning. It was a total mindset difference – ‘we could do this and upset the applecart again’ versus ‘oh no, we can’t lose to this lot again’.

“We were scared of the outcome and went in on ourselves trying not to lose it rather than going out to win it in the last period.”

The Scots have won the last four. They have coped with England’s pack – during the barren years that had been an issue. “Our pack is pretty decent now and there’s depth now too,” says Harris. And they have shifted England around the field and kept them guessing.

“The way England are set up to play, Scotland cause us more problems than most other teams. A lot of that came from the ability of Finn to move the ball,” says Youngs.

Russell’s influence cannot be overstated. When the Bath stand-off was missing in 2020, Scotland lost – and that was barely recognisable as a rugby match thanks to the influence of the storm that hit Edinburgh and turned the Murrayfield posts into long strands of cooked spaghetti. Russell has not only evolved into a master creative craftsman but he also has an innate confidence that team-mates feed off.

If he has been the catalyst for the Scotland revival then the explosive element that has made the whole thing go bang has been Duhan van der Merwe. He can run hot or he can run cold but against England he has invariably been scalding. The strapping wing has accumulated six tries in the last four Calcutta Cup games. Some of them – notably the kick return classic in 2023 which stunned Twickenham – he had no right to score.

“England should have won two years ago but there were a couple of freakish moments from Duhy which turned the game,” says Maitland, who is part of the Saracens strength and conditioning staff having retired at the end of last season.

In some respects England have also been their own worst enemies. Continuity for instance. They have employed four different half-back combinations in the last four editions. They also saw fit to change their head coach during the same period.

“Scotland have had a bit more stability in terms of selection and game plan and I think we’ve benefited from that,” says Harris.

Nor have momentary brainfades like Luke Cowan-Dickie’s yellow card at Murrayfield three years ago for deliberately flapping a Russell cross-kick into touch helped. But the fact remains that this is a run largely of Scotland’s own making. There will be periods during this historical rivalry when the gap in quality the numbers game throws up will sometimes be too much for Scotland to bridge. When it isn’t, Scotland need to make hay.

And they have. They have been smart, skilful and ferociously driven. Professionalism was supposed to have diluted amateur era passions but for certain fixtures the old rules still apply. For Scotland, the Calcutta Cup is always more than just a rugby match.

“We’d always play on the emotional side of the England game. How big it was, how much it meant to the fans to beat England. It’s the game that means the most definitely,” says Harris.

For England, well, they want to win of course, but not quite as desperately. You will never get any of the current players to admit as much of course – it would be more than their jobs were worth – but now that he has retired from international rugby Youngs is free to say it as it is.

“The Calcutta Cup game means way more to them than it does to us,” he says. “Rugby is built on emotion and to them it’s always the biggest game whereas for us it’s just another game. I don’t mean that disrespectfully but for me, Le Crunch against France and Wales were always the biggest games of the championship.”

TALE OF THE TAPE

Scotland’s dominance in the last seven Calcutta Cup showdowns

2018 Scotland 25 England 13. Two tries from Huw Jones and the pass from the end of the world by Finn Russell give Scotland a first Calcutta Cup win in a decade.

2019 England 38 Scotland 38. Scotland come back from 31-0 down to threaten the greatest comeback win in Six Nations history only for George Ford to spare England’s blushes late on.

2020 Scotland 6 England 13. Ellis Genge’s close-range try settles a dour contest so badly distorted by Storm Ciara that it was rendered pretty much unwatchable.

2021 England 6 Scotland 11. Duhan van der Merwe scores the only try of the game as Scotland end their 38-year wait for victory at a deserted, Covid-cleared Twickenham.

2022 Scotland 20 England 17. Russell’s late penalty proves decisive after Scotland are awarded a penalty try for Luke Cowan-Dickie slapping a Russell cross-kick into touch.

2023 England 23 Scotland 29. Van der Merwe wins a thriller for Scotland with a try six minutes from time after scoring an extraordinary individual try in the first half.

2024 Scotland 30 England 21. Van der Merwe becomes the first Scotland player to score a Calcutta Cup hat-trick as Steve Borthwick’s first game in charge of England ends in defeat.

Scotland have harnessed those bone-marrow deep feelings that the Calcutta Cup arouses to good effect. The disappointment for Townsend’s side has been that they have been unable to turn their mastery over England into something tangible.

There have been no Grand Slams, no Six Nations titles, not even a solitary Triple Crown over the period in question. Scotland have never finished higher than third. The tone of the Calcutta Cup conversation has changed though, according to McInally.

“Growing up there was never any expectation we’d beat England. We hoped we would but now, with the success we’ve had and the team we’ve got, we’d be really disappointed if we didn’t,” he says. “That’s nothing on England but this group now have never really known not beating England. It is a confidence thing. When something has been done, it’s much easier to do it again – the Roger Bannister four-minute mile thing.”

Maitland concurs: “I look at the Scotland starting XV now and I expect them to win now, just with the quality that they have. That back-line, in particular, is just so dangerous,” he says. “The tide has turned. No one is surprised any more when Scotland win the Calcutta Cup.”

Can Scotland keep their run going when the fixture comes round again on England’s home turf this Saturday? Or will a change of name for the Allianz Stadium bring a change of Calcutta Cup fortune for England? They are overdue in the longest-running saga in international rugby but Scotland have the winning template. A hurdle that seemed insurmountable for so many years feels anything but these days.

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