Six Nations 2011: Scotland captain Alastair Kellock stirs ancient rivalries to capture Calcutta Cup against England
Scotland captain Alastair Kellock will be happy to press his players’ Braveheart buttons as he leads them into Sunday’s Calcutta Cup clash with England at Twickenham.
We can win this: Alastair Kellock talks to Nathan Hines in training Photo: REUTERS
By Alasdair Reid 9:54PM GMT 10 Mar 2011
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With an English head coach in Andy Robinson, it had been suggested that the Scots might be reluctant to use historic enmities as motivation, but Kellock said he will use any tool available to get the best out of a side that has lost its three Six Nations matches this season.
“It’s not anti-English, but it's rivalry,” Kellock said. “It’s as big a rivalry as you’ll get. And it’s a great thing. It’s a massive game to be involved in.
“Growing up as a Scotland supporter, the rivalry between Scotland and England was always special. That gives it a bit of added extra for everybody involved.” However, Kellock rejected a suggestion that Scotland will be fired up by a desire to derail England’s Grand Slam hopes. “Our need for a win outweighs anything that is going for them right now,” he said.
Scotland finished strongly in their most recent match, against Ireland, but still lost 21-18. Kellock believes he saw enough in the final quarter of that game to be confident about taking on England.
He said: “We’re having bad spells in games. That’s always going to happen, and it’s about how you react. We’re drifting out of the game at crucial times, and then compounding those errors. When we have opportunities we're making crucial mistakes, just something silly that puts the pressure back on us.
“The pleasing thing is that we fought back in the Ireland game and played some of our best rugby in the last 20 minutes. We have to be a difficult team to play against, and we were for some of that game.
“We need an 80 minute performance. After the Ireland game the feeling was a lot more positive than after the Wales game because of how we performed at stages of the game. But the poor things were just as poor.”
Ross Ford, Scotland’s Lions Test hooker, has ended speculation about his future by signing a new two-year contract with Edinburgh. There had been a concern that Ford would follow the lead of Glasgow’s Max Evans, who is moving to France at the end of the season, but the 26 year-old said he is happy to stay put.
“Ross putting pen to paper is a massive boost for everyone,” said Nick Scrivener, Edinburgh’s interim head coach.
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