Ben Earl believes the way England ended their Calcutta Cup drought last year can help them to yet more Six Nations success against Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday.
England are without a win at Murrayfield since 2020, but need a victory if they are to keep alive coach Steve Borthwick’s ambition of a first Grand Slam for the Red Rose brigade in a decade.
Scotland, however, have dominated rugby’s oldest international match during the past eight years, winning five times and drawing once.
It was only with a dour 16-15 win at Twickenham last year that England ended a run of four successive Scotland wins in a fixture first played in 1871.
A resurgent England are now on a run of 12 successive wins, with their 2025 Calcutta Cup triumph an important staging post according to No 8 Earl.
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“Funnily enough, we’ve watched it back a couple of times over the last couple of weeks for a number of different reasons, seeing how far we’ve come as a team but also what being outsmarted tactically can look like,” Earl told a pre-match press conference at Murrayfield on Friday.
“That game was the epitome of winning ugly. Scotland for the most part tactically outplayed us. A lot of the boys have said they’ve learned a huge amount from that fixture and have kicked on from there.”
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The 28-year-old Saracens loose forward added: “We felt we got dragged into an arm wrestle that we didn’t know how to, or weren’t well equipped enough, to break out of.
“It was in and around the ruck area, the kicking game, the territory battle – an oddity of different things. But we feel like we’ve now got the tools to deal with a number of different things.
“We’ve had a couple of ugly wins along the way since then, but we feel like we’re finding ways to win games of rugby.”
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England launched their 2026 Six Nations with a 48-7 rout of Wales last weekend, with Scotland slumping to an 18-15 loss away to Italy.
But with memories of England’s 30-21 loss at Murrayfield in 2024 still vivid, a wary Earl said: “I can’t speak on their behalf, but I know what a wounded animal can look like – it wasn’t too long ago that we were losing games and trying to bounce back.
“The last time we were here two years ago, we learnt a lot about ourselves, we learned a lot about Scotland and what a hostile environment Murrayfield can be for us.”
There will be no love lost when Scotland host England on Valentine’s Day! pic.twitter.com/b6CQytxtN1
— SA Rugby magazine (@SARugbymag) February 12, 2026
– AFP
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