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Townsend tasks Scots to find mojo for Calcutta Cup
The Guardian
|February 13, 2026
Coach seeks bounce back from Italy loss to beat England in ‘biggest game of season’
Gregor Townsend's Scotland side will be without Edinburgh players
Gregor Townsend has warned England against underestimating his Scotland team and believes the hosts can maintain their fine recent Calcutta Cup record in Edinburgh tomorrow.
The visitors have won only two of the past eight fixtures between the two countries and Townsend wants his players to feed off the feelgood memories of previous English losses.
While last weekend’s deeply disappointing loss to Italy in Rome has generated plenty of external criticism for Scotland, England have won only once at Murrayfield since 2017. Townsend is expecting his players to bounce back from their Italian setback and says they will be inspired by past successes. “I would hope they don’t fade into irrelevance because our players have evidence that they’ve won in this fixture,” said the head coach.
This story is from the February 13, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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