Scotland’s Calcutta Cup glory can ignite Six Nations challenge – Sione Tuipulotu

Scotland beat England 31-20 at Murrayfield as the hosts bounced back from defeat to Italy.

Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu lifts the Calcutta Cup (Steve Welsh/PA) (PA Wire)

Sione Tuipulotu predicted Saturday’s stirring 31-20 Calcutta Cup victory over England will have a galvanising effect on Scotland as they bid to banish their recent troubles.

The Scots went into the Murrayfield showdown under intense pressure after defeat in Italy in their Guinness Six Nations opener made it seven games in a row without victory over sides ranked in the top 10 in the world.

But they responded with a magnificent performance to end England’s 12-game winning streak with their biggest victory over the Auld Enemy since 2018.

Captain Tuipulotu believes the euphoria of putting their oldest rivals to the sword in such emphatic fashion can help get them back on track ahead of Saturday’s trip to Cardiff to play Wales.

“I’ve been on this journey now for four or five years with this team and I take the last week as a low moment for myself, but I’ve also had some massive highs, and this is one of them,” said Tuipulotu.

“But I really want this to be the growth now, us to show our growth next week to back up this performance in a stadium that we’ve had troubles in over the last 20 years.

“But I’m really excited, and I do hope this change – you sense when a moment changes a feeling inside a changing room – and I can’t tell you how happy I am for the group to feel the feeling that I’m feeling now, because I really do feel that that is a performance that can change a lot.”

Scotland’s victory – via a double from Huw Jones either side of scores from Jamie Ritchie and Ben White – catapulted them towards the top of the fledgling Six Nations table and eased the pressure on head coach Gregor Townsend as they travelled to Spain on Sunday to prepare for Wales.

“My message to the group would be not to look at the table or the outside noise,” he said. “I think that’s one of the challenging parts of the Six Nations. It’s such a big tournament that there’s so much media that comes with it, there’s so much excitement from outside the changing room.

“It’s important just to keep the excitement in the changing room and focus on the next game, and that’s Wales.

“We’ll go to Spain now to prepare well for Wales and give them all the respect in the world, because if we can back up this performance, we’ll go into the fallow week feeling good about ourselves.”

England head coach Steve Borthwick rued the pivotal effect of George Ford having a drop-goal attempt charged down at 24-13 before the Scots raced up the pitch to go 31-13 ahead.

“You get that drop-goal, it’s 24-16 and there’s still 25 minutes left, that’s a different complexion,” he said.

“To go down the other end and lose seven points, that 10-point swing was big. Clearly that was a big point in the game. But there’s plenty of other smaller moments in the game that added up to that result.”

The defeat was a blow to England’s hopes of a first title since 2020 but Borthwick said: “We’re just focused on the game in front of us. The game in front of us is Ireland next Saturday at the Allianz Stadium.”