Scotland Fire Back With Some Mind Games Of Their Own For England
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Two can play that game Eddie.
Scotland captain John Barclay has downplayed his side’s chances of beating England at Twickenham on Saturday, and believes the pressure is on Eddie Jones’ men, not them.
Jones suggested last week that Scotland will be burdened by expectation ahead of their game, but skipper Barclay is having none of it.
“Putting expectation on ourselves doesn’t actually achieve anything,” he said.
“But if we play well we can beat teams.
“We have the backs now who are scoring good tries – people like Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Tim Visser. Alex Dunbar is so reliable, Finn Russell and others, these guys have something about them.
“They are exciting guys to play with but a lot of hard work goes into allowing them to have that X-Factor.”
Barclay said Scotland are not concentrating on the hype around Saturday’s fixture and are instead focusing on things which they can control themselves.
“Playing England down there, the Calcutta Cup and their run are all things that happen externally,” he added.
“Expectations are there but we don’t put any undue pressure on ourselves. We kind of feel like the expectations are more on England. They’ve gone how many games unbeaten? We’ve only won two games this Six Nations.
“We feel there’s not much pressure on us. We are playing some good stuff which is maybe externally building a little bit of pressure. But within the group we’re not getting carried away.
“Within the group we’ve just looked at England and how best we can prepare for the game.
“Don’t get me wrong – it’s fantastic walking around with people being positive and saying nice things but I know how fast these things can change.
“We’ve won two games out of three whereas England have won 17 in a row. The expectation is one thing but if you’ve won 17 games in a row you’ve probably done more. Although it’s fantastic we’re in the position where we’ve won a couple of games.”
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