George Ford warns England must prepare for physical battle with Scotland… as infamous Murrayfield tunnel scandal remains fresh in fly-half’s memory

• George Ford insists England are prepared for a ‘frozen’ welcome at Murrayfield
• Ford was involved in the tunnel scandal in 2018 after being shoved by Ryan Wilson
• Scotland will be favorites to win the Calcutta Cup for the sixth time in seven years

England No. 10 George Ford insists his team will prepare for a “frozen” welcome at Murrayfield as they aim for their first win against Scotland since 2020.

England, who have won only one of the past six Calcutta Cups, travel to Edinburgh as underdogs next week for the third round of the Six Nations.

Ford was infamously pushed into the tunnel at Murrayfield by Scotland’s Ryan Wilson in 2018, but the fly-half insists the team’s new players will know what to expect.

“We know the challenges that Murrayfield has,” Mr Ford said. “They have had our phone number for various reasons over the last few years.

“They’re a dangerous team. It’s always a tough game, especially when the English players go there at Murrayfield… It’s been a few years since they went down the tunnel!” Bloody hell.

“All joking aside, we have to make sure we are ready for something like that. That’s the beauty of going to Scotland and trying to win. You don’t want to give the opposition what they want. A lot will depend on who wins the game physically and with their intent and attitude. Of course they have to play well. England vs Scotland The game is freezing cold, that’s exactly what it is. To be honest, today was the same. We will prepare as best we can.”

Center Manu Tuilagi and lock George Martin could return to add strength to England’s line-up after missing close games against Italy and Wales.

England are preparing for a much tougher challenge in the second half of the tournament and Ford admits they need to further develop their try-scoring edge.

“In ideal circumstances, we don’t want to be in a game where we’re winning by one or two points,” Ford said. “The game is going to change, so we’re going to look at ways to turn that dominance into pressure on the scoreboard.” We want to put teams to sleep. We need to focus on how we can improve this. I think we saw small improvements again. ”