Six Nations: Ben Earl urges England to rise to challenge by ending losing run in Scotland at Murrayfield

Ben Earl has asserted that England "can win from almost any position" as Steve Borthwick's side look to continue their 100 per cent start to this season's Six Nations when they face Scotland at Murrayfield.

England started their 2024 campaign with back-to-back wins against Italy in Rome and Wales at Twickenham, following on from their run to third place at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

However, the Scots could pose their toughest challenge yet, having won the last three Calcutta Cup clashes and lost just once in the last six meetings between the old rivals.

"We've got to look forward to going there,” said number eight Earl, who was among the try-scorers in Saturday's 16-14 win against Wales.

"Scotland are a proud rugby nation, they've got some great players, some great individuals.

"We've never had an easy game against them and last time we played them at Twickenham, the first game of last year, we lost."

Scotland’s own hopes of challenging for the title this year took a major blow when they suffered a 20-16 defeat to France at Murrayfield in a game overshadowed by a highly controversial TMO decision that denied the Scots a match-winning late try.

England last won the title in 2020, but have failed to break the top two since then.

However, Saracens forward Earl believes they now have the game under Borthwick to get results under pressure.

"We feel we've got a good game to fall back on when things are tight,” he said.

“We can squeeze games out and find a way to win. We know we can win from almost any position.

"When our backs were against the wall against Wales, we got together and said 'look, it feels like we're not getting the rub of the green here from the ref and/or the context of the game, so we need to almost bunker down or come out swinging in a way'.

"Other England teams in previous regimes, we might have gone into our shells and reverted to an individual focus, but we were collected and aligned in our messaging and in our next actions, so we were really pleased.

"The Italy game was a step in the right direction and Wales was another step in the right direction, so who knows where we can take it."

England face Scotland on Saturday, February 24 in round three, with kick-off at 16:45 UK time.

On the same day, Ireland host Wales at 14:15, while on Sunday, February 25 Italy visit France at 15:00.

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