Scotland Team Needs Government Help

It is now 20 years since Scotland won at Twickenham and there was a stark contrast in mood on either side of Hadrian's Wall yesterday. England, with several big names back from injury, looked as relaxed as at any stage this season but Scottish fans have been warned that their side's Calcutta Cup prospects will remain bleak unless the national team receives urgent government support.

The former Scotland scrum-half Roy Laidlaw, who now works for the Scottish Rugby Union as International Sevens and Under-21s programme manager, is the source of this grim prognosis, claiming swift action is needed if his country are ever to compete with England consistently again.

"English rugby is so strong and the professional game has helped them more than other countries," insisted Laidlaw, scorer of a try in Scotland's last win at Twickenham in 1983. "In the amateur days it was more of a level playing field. Now the game is professional, England have academies developing players quicker, far more funding from the lottery and so on.

"We have always said, if England got their structure right, they would be impressive. The difficulty we have is that we only have a small playing pool, it is not our national sport and there is no emphasis on sport from the government here."

Laidlaw did say Scotish victory this weekend is not inconceivable - "if the players believe it, then it is possible" - but Clive Woodward did not appear unduly tense as his team trained in glorious sunshine at their Surrey hotel after two days off recovering from their weekend club exertions.

In Woodward's view his squad are increasingly capable of handling the pressure of the closing two Six Nations games as they seek the two wins that would bring the title and a first grand slam since 1995.

"It's an experienced team and they're very clear what's at stake here," he acknowledged, suggesting an enforced break to rest injuries had given fresh incentive to experienced players like Jason Leonard, Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Ben Cohen and Jason Robinson. "It's good bringing players back. I think even people like Martin miss it."

The head coach took time out to counter accusations that he spent much of the Italy game staring gloomily at the floor, revealing he was simply watching a TV monitor below him. He has asked for his monitor to be repositioned this weekend to avoid people jumping to mischievous conclusions again and also insists he rates Scotland more highly than recent results might suggest.

"It's a huge game for the team. Scotland, like most sides who come to Twickenham, have nothing to lose. They've a very strong team, especially their pack, and it's not a team we're underestimating one little bit. If they'd held a few more passes against France they'd have scored a few more tries."

Asked for the secret of Leonard's unexpectedly quick recovery from hamstring trouble, Woodward joked: "You'd better ask his mates in the Sun Inn in Richmond." In fact Leonard has had a torturous physiotherapy regime - "apart from chopping the bloody thing off I don't know what more they could have done," the prop said - and has earned his 101st cap the hard way.